#there's some real nice whump in that movie

[zeroducks-2]

Hi.

(Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox)

Today in "I swear I was not watching porn you just walked in at the wrong time-"

[ahdriking]

Mansuang Review:

Mansuang was amazing. I was particularly impressed by Apo's performance as Khem, which was emotional and complex and deeply moving. His story was riveting to me. I personally love characters with trauma in their backgrounds, who have been beaten down by the world into a certain way of thinking and behaving, and Apo captured that experience gracefully and expertly. There is palpable pain in his performance of the darkest moments. I will say that they could have expanded upon his character development a lot more. It would have been nice to have a bit more emotional nuance in his journey towards self-love and acceptance, but I definitely didn't feel unsatisfied by where his narrative ended up. The movie was already juggling so much they clearly just didn't have the time to dedicate to expanding upon the nitty gritty aspects of his healing.

I will say that I am honestly kinda surprised this didn't have any romance in it at all, because there is such a good foundation for it that it feels like they wasted? Like, Khem feeling that no one cares about him except for his body could have been the gateway to Chatra demonstrating care and affection for him outside of sex, proving that he's capable of being loved for who he is. That jumps out at me. That might have been an opportunity for them also to have expanded on Chatra's character, and given him more presence and personality. Khem is a protector, that's clear in the way he treats Wan, but he so often has to sacrifice himself in that role that it would have been devastatingly effective if Chatra had had an opportunity to take care of him in some way instead.

I loved the *bad touch* backstory, for whumping reasons, but it did leave me a little confused. Why did Khem have to have sex with those people? Was it because he's ambitious enough that he'll sell himself to advance his position? Was it because someone was forcing him to, like a boss or person in power? Was it because he felt he had no choice, or was protecting Wan from something? I just wish we could have gotten to know him better, because we get to see the impact of the trauma but we don't really get to understand it, and that leaves me wondering. It felt like, during the dance scene where Khem goes off script, that he did that as an attempt at seduction, because seduction is what he knows and what he expects. He's used to trading in on his beauty and sex appeal to get what he wants. That suggests so many characteristics to me that just... don't quite exist in the rest of the story. And there's no real conclusion to it other than Khem, at the end of the story, choosing to be a dancer because he's at peace with his place in society. Again, lots and lots of opportunities were built up that just didn't quite manage to hit a home run.

Mile did a fucking fantastic job with what he was given, but I was a little disappointed with his role in the story. I felt like the relationship between him and Khem was half-done and underdeveloped, but it had so much potential! He put in an absolutely solid performance, and knocked the emotional scenes out of the park, but I couldn't help but feel like he wasn't given the chance to really shine.

Tong killed it. Killed it fucking dead. That man has the screen presence of a King, which surprised the fuck out of me cos I thought he was a character actor based on his performance in KinnPorsche. But no, this guy has range. I was very impressed.

Bas did a great job playing a racist sad boy. RIP Wan.

In conclusion: a flawed movie, but still so enjoyable and so, so worth watching. I cannot fucking wait for Shine, I hope that it delivers in some of the areas Mansuang wasn't able to.

[zarvasace]

Out-of-Fandom Longfic Recs

Looking for something good that you can sink your teeth into? Not necessarily LoZ? I can recommend some masterpieces and favorites. :) all these are complete!

Harry Potter and the Problem of Potions by Wyste. 180k. Yes yes HP I know. It was still a formative part of my adolescence and this is just fanfiction. Very satisfying fanfiction, in which Harry becomes a real character who desperately wants to be a potion master despite Snape's every attempt to dissuade him. Lots of fun.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by LessWrong. 661k. Longest thing on this list but HOO BOY is it worth it. Written by a guy to teach people about... well. Methods of rationality. Applies the scientific method to the HP-verse, makes Voldemort actually smart, and is a lot of fun the whole way through. You can read on FFN or by downloading an epub or PDF. At least try the first chapter I am BEGGING YOU.

The Dragon-King's Temple by Kryal. Avatar: the Last Airbender (show) & Stargate SG-1, 200k. I knew nothing about SG-1 going in, had only seen the movie, and really enjoyed this. Once again, the worldbuilding and the mystery are very very good. Like legitimately. Zuko & Toph focus!

Thrower of the Dart by Vathara. Avengers & Artemis Fowl (books) crossover, 100k. Picks up after the first Avengers movie and AF book 5 (the demon one.) Very nice plot, good character interactions, fun worldbuilding, mostly in the AF side.

let the shadows fall behind you by Sweetbriar15. Disney's Descendants (just the first one), 155k. Did you ever feel like the movie was a bit of a waste of a good story premise? This will help. Picks up after modifying the end of the first movie, introduces a lot of awesome character and worldbuilding information. Mal-focused, but not too heavily.

Phantom of Truth by Haiju. Danny Phantom, 58k. DP is full of whump fics, and this is probably one of the very best. Its sequel, Shadow of a Doubt, has stopped updating on AO3, but it should still be on FFN. SoaD is, iirc, 100k+, and quite good, dealing with the aftermath of the first.

Bandits and Bravery by LettdViolet. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, 28k. Linhardt/M!Byleth, modern college AU, the events of the game are played out by a group playing knockoff D&D. Themes of grief and mourning a parent's death, and finding comfort. Linhardt is like a sleepy version of Vio without as much evil. Shortest on this list but I LIKE IT OKAY

Carpetbaggers by cofax. Chronicles of Narnia, 120k. Fills in some of the time post-LWW with adventures and working on gaining trust. Feels a lot like a continuation of the book, though without the heavy-handed allegory.

[whumpshaped]

it’s been rotating in my head so much, could you write a continuation of the whumpee reacting negatively to comfort?

(https://www.tumblr.com/whumpshaped/733269013900181504/idk-if-youre-still-looking-for-classic-tropes-but)

prev

tw none rly, past trauma and fear of punishment ?

They all apologised over the course of the following week. Every single one of Caretaker's friends. They didn't make it a huge show either: they said sorry, promised it wouldn't happen again, then moved on with their day before Whumpee could've flipped out. And it didn't happen again.

Whumpee was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely, their outburst would have consequences, right? All those apologies couldn't have been real and sincere.

What would it be? Would they start hitting them because of their aversion to kind touches? Or would they hold them down and touch them all over, gently caressing skin that still bore the invisible marks of Whumper's calloused fingers?

Nothing happened. They even refrained from making too affectionate comments, no more 'we love you's and 'we care about you's. Whumpee told themself this was much better; they didn't need fake reassurances. But sometimes... sometimes their treacherous mind longed for it. They wnated to matter, after all, wanted to be loved, it was just that they wanted it to be earnest.

A month had passed, and no one treated them with any less kindness than before. Verbal and physical manifestations of affection turned into being offered a warm meal, or letting them pick movies for the night. No one ever snatched the food away, nor did they ever make fun of their picks. If the paranoia levels had been too high that day and they refused, no one chastised them.

They stood in front of Caretaker's door, knowing well that this talk was long-overdue. Knocking seemed like the most difficult task in the world, right up there with not running away once they'd done so. Caretaker opened the door within seconds.

"What's up?" they asked with a smile. "It's pretty late."

"I know."

Whumpee apparently looked nervous enough to wipe the smile off their friend's face, because they frowned, all the carefree joy gone from their voice as they asked, "Is everything okay?"

They took a deep breath, telling themself these were just words, and no words were more difficult to say than others. Not in theory. "I wanted to apologise. For the, uh... for the way I spoke to you during that argument we had. About the hugs and stuff. And accusing you of being a liar. Clearly, you... didn't lie."

Surprise crossed Caretaker's face for just a moment before their smile returned. "Oh! Well, apology accepted."

Was that... it? "Um..." Caretaker made no move to hug it out, which Whumpee appreciated immensely. But still... No. No, maybe some words were too difficult to say. "Thanks. Good night."

"Good night, Whumpee. Thank you for trusting me."

As Whumpee was walking back to their room, they thought about how they would ever be able to ask to be told nice things again. To be told they were cared for.

Loved.

~

general drabbles taglist: @ashh-ed @whumpsday @whump-queen @the-scrapegoat @hidden-dreamland @rosewriteswhump @dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night @whumpkinpie @delicateprincepaper @whumppmuhw @whump-em @cyborg0109 @morning-star-whump @justanotherlokifan @2in1whump @lthrboy @justletmereadmywhump @florissimps @anonymous-tiangou

[whumping-valentine]

🦌 Fawn and Hunter - Part 3 🦌

"Restless Nights"

Content: Paranoid whumpee, fear of being SAed, uhhh idk this is mostly setup for the next chapter which will be much more whumpy.

1,100 words

(Not) continuing on with my part-a-day challenge (to the fullest) but I'll try to get a part out on the regular! Congrats, you now know what I'm like as a content creator! Rule of thumb, if I ever say "I'll try to—" or "I will be—" you can count on me to never deliver!

However, in my own defense, I've been working my job a shit ton recently, and am also working on a 12 book series, and also working on the series for Valentine that I'll be posting here, and drawing a lot, so I'm pretty busy, lol. But as always, excuse my writing quality for this mini series, I just shit these out into Google Docs and then copy and paste them here.

With that said, I humbly bring you all part 3! The next part is where the whump is really gonna start coming through, so stay tuned for that (and the eventual off-the-rails plot I thought of at 3 am while trying to sleep)

       Fawn was in a state of shock, and they knew it, too. They didn’t feel very much besides the anxiety that coursed through their veins. They should be frightened, and feel disgusted. They should be crying, and panicking, and trying to find a way out. Yet all they could do was sit up right on the old dirty mattress, hugging their knees to their chest as they stared into the pitch black darkness of Hunter’s basement.

       Eventually they fell back against the mattress, hands over their chest as their heart beat wildly, yet they felt nothing. Not even tired. Sleep was nowhere near on their mind. All they could think about was their own stupidity. How they managed to walk right into a psychopath’s literal trap. Thoughts of the future wavered through their mind, and none of the scenarios were favorable.

       Were they going to be killed? No, Hunter alluded to it, but said they were too pretty, whatever the hell that means. Was that really the only thing keeping them alive? What if they accidentally piss them off? What if they grow bored of them? But… What do they even want with them in the first place? Something nice to look at? A pretty pet? Where they going to be raped? They didn’t even want to consider the thought.

       Fawn couldn’t hear a single sound other than the sound of their own breathing and heartbeat. They couldn't even see their own hands in front of them. There were no windows, no connections to the outside world. It was sensory deprived hell, and as the minutes ticked away they felt like they were going insane.

       They couldn’t take it anymore, and sat up, slowly getting up to stand on their one good foot. They wobbled and felt weak, but once they got their footing they slowly hopped to where they saw the light string. Reaching out blindly in the darkness, they felt it in their hands, and pulled it. A click rang through the air, and the basement was illuminated, albeit dimly, but they could at least see.

       The basement was full of all kinds of clutter, like tools, weapons, boxes, taxidermied animals, bones, fur rugs, and mounted animal heads. There were a bunch of spiders, cobwebs, and cockroaches scurrying around. Good thing they weren't afraid of bugs. At least they had some company.

       The mattress was torn and covered in blood and dirt. Lots of dried blood, actually. How many others were here before them? How many others spent their last nights on this same, tattered bed? It all felt too surreal. It couldn't be real. This was a horror movie, or a true crime documentary in the making, and they were the next subject. Why them of all people? Life isn't fair.

They began to carefully and quietly sift through the various things Hunter kept down there. Looking through the boxes, opening drawers, peeking behind furniture. Inside a metal cabinet were multiple folders and papers. The papers being....

       ...Missing posters?

First came confusion, then came the wide eyed terror and the sinking of their heart. In shock their shaking hands dropped the papers, and when they got their bearings, picked them back up, examining them.

       There were some from different places, but most of them came from the same nearby town that Fawn had just moved to. They could recall seeing some of them around town, or in newspaper ads. Even conversations with the locals about how people often go missing... The oldest one of the bunch was ten years ago. The most recent was only from 6 months ago.

       Fawn felt sick to their stomach. Asking how many people were here before them was supposed to just be rhetorical.

       Fawn grabbed a knife that was sitting on one of the tables, and turned out the lights. It was old and rusted, but just having a weapon in their hands at least gave them the illusion of safety. They clutched it tightly in both of their hands, sitting on the mattress. They were restless and anxious, with their wide eyes staring towards the door in darkness. They could hear the floorboards creak above them, and they hoped and prayed Hunter wouldn't come back down the stairs.

       Especially if they thought they were asleep.

       Though much like Fawn, Hunter wasn't able to rest their eyes, either. However, while Fawn's may have been from fear, Hunter was far too excited. They tossed and turned, but all they could think about was their latest victim. When they remembered they had a bag with them that they removed, they jumped out of bed immediately.

       Moonlight was shining through the trees, seeping into the decrepit cabin through cracked and boarded up windows. Hunter went to the kitchen and picked Fawn's bag up off of the floor, curious to rummage through their things.

       It was filled with snacks and water bottles. There was a change of clothes, a pocket knife, a book on plant identification, binoculars, and finally, they hit the jackpot. A phone with no passcode! Just who was their little Fawn, really?

       Their lockscreen was a photo of two cats cuddling, looking like they took it themself at a shelter. Much to Hunter's dismay, it didn't seem like they had any social medias, but they did have lots of things in their gallery!… though they were mostly just photos of animals. They couldn't find a real name or anything that was truly personal.

       It wouldn't matter much even if they did have socials, because there was no signal out here. It wouldn't connect to the internet. Maybe they had something in their calendar?... no, nothing. No birthdays or events, except for some things relating to the Animal shelter. 

       Their phone was so void of anything that it was almost frustrating. Either they didn't use technology much, or they had absolutely nothing going on in their life besides their volunteer work. I mean, they didn't even have a passcode, Hunter was disappointed, to say the least.

      A weak knock coming from the basement door startled them out of their dissatisfaction.

      "Uhh… Hunter?" A meek, muffled voice called.

      "What?"

       "I… have to pee."

      "Okay."

      "I need a bathroom."

       "No you don't. You have a change of clothes right here, you can change in the morning."

       "What?!" Fawn was appalled, "But—"

       "You should be happy you're alive and shut up. Piss on the floor and go to bed."

       "But—"

       "Piss on the floor and go to bed." Hunter repeated, much more stern. It was silent for a moment before quiet thumps could be heard limping down the stairs. Poor injured thing.

       Hunter had a feeling this recent capture was going to be quite an interesting one. They listen well enough, but don't seem to really grasp the situation they've found themself in. It wasn't a worry, that just meant training them was going to be all the more enjoyable.

       Hunter smiled.

       They were going to have fun tomorrow.

[angelmichelangelo]

HII!!!! Any chance you can rec me some good Mikey centric fics? I don’t mind what iteration just whatever ones you think are best lol ❤️❤️

hi sorry this took a while to get to! i have mikey centric fics galore! enjoy!!

drained by inkandstone

(tw for character death here - kicking off the list with some painful angst lol) this is a mutant mayhem fic so be weary of spoilers!! if you like real mikey whump you’ll like this

To Know Peace (You Gotta Let Go) by Deadpool1763492

ronin mikey. babies. that’s my jam. some old man healing which is very much needed!

All I Ever Wanted by DysfunctionalRequest

more hurt mikey angst? in my fic recommendation? it’s more likely than you think. tw for loss of limb. it’s a sainw fic so you just know it’s gonna hurt. have fun with this one

Get Some Rest by rosegoldalien

sick fic!! big siblings doting on baby brother !!! this is the nice kind of whump lol

Champion by ceraxxxx

just some missing scenes from mikey’s battle nexus champion win. very good. 2k3 mikey needs a hug from everybody

swear to be overdramatic and true by taizi

ok so im slipping in some woodyangelo territory here buuuut does it even count it woody technically doesn’t show up in this fic?? anyway here is some good ol’ rise brotherly teasing as well as some nice moments between leo and mikey about feelings and boyfriends

Las Cosas Pequeñitas by KameTerra

this one isn’t as mikey centric as it is leo centric but 2007 leo coming home and him and mike having a heart to heart… fills me with so much joy

“A delivery boy! Uh, or turtle.” by LollyHolly99

2003 mikey is so gender. a little self discovery fic.

Hunted by DysfunctionalRequest

aaaand we’re back to the angsty ouchie mikey fics lol. reading this is like watching a movie. it’s a lot of fun. mikey getting hunted down by people in the woods. alone. if you like slasher movies it kinda has the essence of that but in ninja turtle form

Why Mikey Needs Braces by MxJez

finishing off this list with something lighthearted. some mutant mayhem fluff, pre movie, what it says on the can. this is a fun little read

[whumpcloud]

Red Room - Lies and Proof

content: filmed whump, creepy/intimate whumper, sadistic whumper, captivity, threatened fingore (cutting off a finger - doesn't happen but nails get pulled out instead), begging, implied child abuse (non-specific)

New project. Jack Mitchell (yes, that one, if you know me you know I'm excited), twenty-one, he/they. Real pretty when he cries. No permanent injuries, no broken limbs, and no facial damage, but as always, it's up to you. Streaming in twenty. Leave suggestions while you wait!

Matthew refreshes the page.

Nothing. Thirty seconds.

Matthew refreshes the page.

Take a knife to him.

Oh, knife freak's still here. Matthew refreshes the page.

Threaten him with something permanent so he screams and begs :)

Not even a finger or two? Bummer. You're not usually this careful. Pull out their nails?

holy shit, youre not kidding. hes all over the news. you should show him.

Now that gives Matthew an idea. He can manage all of those, if he does them in the right order.

Jack is sitting up on the mattress, biting his nails down to the skin, when Matthew comes to get him.

"N-No, please." Jack shrinks away, as though hiding in the corner is going to help. "Please, please don't, p-please-"

"Begging's not gonna get you anywhere, baby boy," Matthew grins. "But keep doing it anyway. It's adorable."

Jack screams and struggles until Matthew slams the back of his head into the wall, so about three seconds. Jack whines and closes his eyes so that the room doesn't jostle with Matthew's careless movement. It doesn't seem like Matthew has an ounce of patience for Jack screaming when he doesn't explicitly want it.

Fine.

Matthew lays Jack on the table and straps him in. Jack immediately notices the television, then everything spins as Matthew tilts the table.

"Can't have you straining your neck to look," he smiles. "Camera on!"

The one thing that Jack can take comfort in is that Matthew looks like an idiot. He really does look like some kidnapper in a movie, black scarf over his mouth hiding his maniacal delight. Not that it's really any comfort at all, but Jack grasps onto it anyway.

"You gonna say hi, Jacky?" Matthew says.

"All of you are horrible people," Jack spits.

"Yeah, yeah, I think we know that," Matthew laughs, then checks his watch. "Anyway, let's watch something. Might take a bit to get to the good part."

Matthew turns on the television, flicking to some celebrity news show that Jack has always been banned from watching or being on.

It plays for a few minutes, and Jack can feel his heart beating in his ears. Is the anticipation a part of it? Jack fidgets in his bindings.

"This is so fun for you," Jack says dryly.

"Wait for it," Matthew says, double checking his watch.

And then Jack sees it. That's him, on the screen, a picture of him at a convention a few years ago. It's the only one the news ever uses, because it's the last time they managed to get a photo of him smiling like that.

It fades out, into an interview, and Jack isn't listening, can't listen, because that's his father, on this show he hates, looking anxious and teary and worried.

Jack hates it. Is it another act? Even he can't tell. He turns away from the screen, angry tears in his eyes.

Matthew watches, and Jack knows that stupid smirk is on his face under his stupid scarf. "What is it, baby boy? You don't like watching? Don't you wanna see your dad?"

"He's lying," Jack mumbles. "He doesn't care."

"That's not a nice thing to say about your dad, Jacky," Matthew says.

"So?" Jack squeezes his eyes shut. "He probably thinks I ran away. He's just using being famous to get me back."

"Oh, that's interesting," Matthew chuckles, and circles around to rest his chin on the top of the table, fingers tracing Jack's cheekbones. "Why would you run away, huh? Come on, you've got nothing to lose by telling."

"Do you think I wanted to be a fucking actor?" Jack snaps, wrenching his face away from Matthew's touch. "I didn't, I hate it, but he wanted me to and I didn't have a fucking choice."

"Daddy issues, huh?" Matthew's tone of voice doesn't waver from amusement. "Doesn't mean he doesn't care about you, baby boy."

"He cares because I look good on camera," Jack mutters.

Matthew laughs. "Can't say I disagree. But come on, I bet he'd care about you getting hurt. Even if it's just 'cause he's not the one hurting you."

"He wouldn't."

"Aw, you sound so sure." Matthew grins as Jack's head snaps to the side at the feeling of a knife against his hand. "We could prove it. You wanna prove it?"

Jack swallows. "What, are you going to send him a video of me?"

"Nah, nah, I'm gonna send him something way more fun," Matthew grins, placing the knife edge on Jack's pinky. "Let's go real cliche. What about your finger in a box?"

Jack's eyes widen. "N-No, no, you said- you said nothing permanent, you--"

"And you didn't think I could change my mind?" Matthew digs in, just a little, and Jack's tiny whimper is music to his ears. "Could be fun. We'll just have to see."

"No!" Jack is already starting to sob. So quick to panic. "No, don't, please, please no, s-something else, anything else, please, you said nothing permanent, please!"

Jack screams - like it's going to help, like it's doing anything but make this even more fun - when Matthew slices, a little droplet of blood trickling down the side of Jack's hand.

"Stop it, stop it, please!" Jack begs, not even caring that he's being filmed, that people are watching this for some kind of sick pleasure, laser focused on the fact that he could lose his finger. "Something else, please, I'm begging you!"

"That you are," Matthew says, pressing Jack's palm flat. "Didn't I already tell you begging wasn't gonna get you anywhere?"

"No, p-please!" Jack's desperate voice breaks. "Something else, something else! Not this, please not this!"

"What else then, huh?" Matthew's other hand slides into Jack's hair. "Go on. What else should I send him?"

"I don't know, I don't know, just not my finger, please--"

"I asked you a question, sweetheart," Matthew says, voice lowering. "I want an answer. Pick something. Something that'll hurt."

What can he afford to lose? Jack wracks his brain for something, something that Matthew will accept, something that will hurt but won't hurt too much and he can send and won't be a finger.

"M-My nails?" Jack tries. Is that enough? Please let it be enough. "Y-You could pull… pull them out."

Matthew's face lights up. Oh, he just knew this was going to be fun. Jack has no idea that he's managed to tumble headfirst into where everyone wants him. He really does know exactly how to behave for a camera.

"Alright," Matthew grins. "One hand or both?"

Matthew has no real intention of letting Jack get away from this with any nails left on his hands, but he wants to see what Jack picks. Wants to see how far Jack thinks he wants to go with this.

"Both," Jack mumbles. "Don't pretend it's a choice."

"No, it is," Matthew lies, and puts the knife down to pick up some tweezers instead. "But you've said both now."

Jack is too panicked to think about whether it's a lie or not, and Matthew knows that. Matthew ignores Jack's pleas to change his answer, holds his hand still as he begs, and can't help laughing at the scream when the first nail is ripped from his finger. By the third nail, Jack is cussing out Matthew and everyone watching with all the swear words he knows. By the seventh, he can't do anything but incoherently sob for it to stop. Matthew holds every single nail up for the camera to see, then sets it aside.

"You're so cute when you beg," Matthew says, kissing the top of Jack's head. "All done now. See ya later, everyone."

And Matthew turns the camera off.

"Don't touch me," Jack gasps, fighting to control his breathing. "Don't fucking touch me, I s-swear--"

Matthew isn't actually expecting any resistance, but Jack manages to grab his ponytail in one bloody, bound hand, and pulls sharply.

"You little shit!"

Matthew's first instinct is to break Jack's fingers for it, but he stops himself, and instead wrenches his hair from Jack's grasp and grabs the knife.

Jack balls his hands into fists. "You're a sadistic fucking freak--"

"Shh," is all Matthew knows he needs to say, because he's holding a knife under Jack's chin.

Jack goes silent.

"That's good," Matthew says. "Now, I'm gonna ask you to do some things, and you're not gonna cry or complain, 'cause I don't have the patience for that when no-one's watching. You just gotta do what you're told."

"Mhm," Jack manages.

"Okay. Gonna unstrap you, and then you're gonna walk with me."

Matthew leaves no room for disagreement. Jack limply slides from the table, and Matthew holds him up by the waist, and pulls him towards the countertops around the room.

"There's a box up there," Matthew says, using the knife to gesture. "Bring it down, and then you're gonna push your nails into it."

Jack obeys, even though he whimpers and almost starts to cry again when he sees his own bloody, broken nails. He makes a point not to look at his hands.

"Tape and paper and pens in that drawer," Matthew says. "Write your address and stick it to the top. Write a little letter if you want. But remember I'm over your shoulder, so don't get any ideas."

"Why are you making me do this?" Jack mumbles.

"DNA, silly," Matthew replies. "I sanitise everything, so it's not on the counters. But I'm not taking more risks than I need to."

Jack writes an I'm sorry before hesitating, and tacking on an I love you.

Jack drops a strand of Matthew's hair into the box with the letter, and immediately shuts it so Matthew won't see. It won't make a difference if Matthew's DNA isn't already somewhere. But on the off-chance it is, Jack can cling to some hope.

taglist: @bloodinkandashes @itsmyworld23 @rabbitdrabbles

[thesunshineriptide]

Masterlist

Requests are open! (As of October 24th)

Schedule

Rules

Here’s your sexy, sexy list of twst writings I’ve done!

Note: Masterlist is undergoing restructuring at the moment. Thank you for your patience

Everyone:

💖 Government Assigned Sleepover

💖 college major headcanons

💖 stores I’m taking twst boys to

💖 neurospicy posing reactions

Heartslabyul

“Welcome to the wonderland, most everyone here is mad, now, how are you doing, Mx?”

Savanaclaw

“I’m asking nicely, give me what I want. I’ll ask politely, give me what I want.”

Octavinelle

“In terms of conditions, my friend, I’ve only got three…”

Scarabia

“Rose Colored Boy, yeah you’re making all that noise about the world you want to see.”

Pomefiore

“If I gave up on being pretty, I wouldn’t know how to be alive.”

Ignihyde

“I’d be the choice less hope in grief that drove him underground.”

Diasomnia

Malleus

💚 our world - beginnings

💚 our world - getting a job

💚 our world - realizations

💚 our world (alt timeline) - boys become animals

💚 tween!reader - I don’t wanna go!

💚 child!sally face!reader - face the music

Lilia

💚 our world - beginnings

💚 our world - getting a job

💚 our world - realizations

💚 our world - movie night pt 1

💚 our world (alt timeline) - boys become animals

💚 play fighting

💚 hurt/comfort - artist reader

Silver

💚 hurt/comfort - artist reader

Sebek

💚 lamia!reader head canons

💚 polycule first years - counting rams

💚 first date

Aus:

Our World

Synopsis: in which after a spell to send you home from twisted wonderland goes wrong, and not only you but the housewardens and vice housewardens (and some) are sent back with you and stripped of their magic, rendered completely human

Rating: PG

Tags: angst, mental illness, adjusting, fluff, hurt/comfort

TwistedVision

Synopsis: upon Yuu mysteriously disappearing, there’s a new show on, if you can find it.

Rating: PG-13

Tags: psychological distress, angst, fluff, acting out of character, manipulation, kidnapping, mind control

Howl’s Moving House

Synopsis: Au dedicated to my twisted wonderland character, Howl. Howl is a student of Octavinelle and general troublemaker extraordinaire.

rating: PG-13

Tags: fluff, slice of life, swearing, fighting, hurt/comfort, angst (potentially), ongoing

Right Click Inspect

Synopsis: Au in which the game is run by AI versions of the characters, convinced that their world is real and that something is interfering with their freedom

Rating: PG-13

Tags: sci-Fi, AI Twst, psychological thriller, manipulation, philosophical debates, distress, hurt/comfort, slice of life, fluff

Whumptober Collection

Synopsis: the complete collection of each whumptober entry for the year 2022 done by yours truly

Tags: Angst, torture, whump, psychological distress, violence, dark themes and topics, overblots galore

Rating: R for violence, torture, and the rest of the tags above

[coldresolve]

A huge part of the whump being torture apologia discussion comes from the fact that people exoticize torture. It's foreign. It's something you see in spy movies and read about in thrillers. It's a pain that most people can safely distance themselves from in order to experience emotional catharsis or simple enjoyment. The thing is, some people don't get to have that distance.

It's hard for me to describe the sheer grief that comes with it all. I know a man who was tortured in prison. People who faced abuse from family so severe that it amounted to torture. Someone whose torture was to watch their friends be deliberately hurt. I wish whump writers could learn to have compassion for these people as well, even if their lived experiences are not exceptionally common or openly spoken about.

If an author portrays domestic abuse in their writing, it's generally considered necessary and responsible for them to either write the abuse in a realistic way or to state outside their writing that their portrayal of this very real issue is unrealistic. This respects people's lived experiences with abuse and prevents creating a culture of normalizing and glorifying abusive behavior.

It's most definitely not too much to ask of whump writers to uphold those same standards when writing about torture.

you have no idea how nice it is to get someone well spoken and well thought out in my inbox every once in a while. uh im on like hr 30 of being awake and kinda struggling piecing my thoughts together right now, so forgive me if i dont make a lot of sense, but i wanna say sth

the tone of your ask for some reason really hit a nerve for me. like getting slapped in the face, kind of. i think its the fact you come across really compassionate and just. calm, thoughtful in this. kinda puts my approach into perspective lol

i think im just angry about this topic. like ive got a passion for wanting to get it right, but its driven by anger and frustration. having ppl nitpick the fuck out of everything i say instead of actually having the sorts of conversations that should be had about the topic. i know me being angry edgy tantrum controversial oh whats he gonna say now guy and all that, turns people away from listening to me but i dont know how else to approach it sometimes, i don't want to make excuses for people who i feel should know better. i dont have that kind of patience i guess, at least not right now

i think that anger is like a manifestation, symptom. im angry about the people this happens to, and how catastrophic it is. angry at the people who let it happen. the systems that are built around it. people don't see how systemic torture can be. im angry that the fucking war on terror media frenzy was so effective, because your average person still fucking believes in all the bullshit. or the idea of torture survivors being "broken" like its a personal failure, like its the result of their own shortcomings when they're some of the strongest people you can meet. just all these unfair ideas about it that are everywhere. and people still somehow find it necessary to keep spreading those ideas, even if they know theyre wrong. when it doesnt add anything of value, youre not saying anything about it, youre not actually adding something to the conversation by going along with the bullshit, youre literally just entertaining yourself

i dont know how to not be angry about it, i think. thats the growth goal for me i guess, cause i know this isnt the sorta thing thats gonna fix itself tomorrow. and i dunno your ask just made me think about that, like how i handle this on a personal level. and i think itd be healthy for me to step away from the discussion for a couple days at least and just. accept that i tried to reach people this round, maybe it didnt really work, thats fine, ill try again some other time. also i am writing all this very slowly cause my skull is kinda collapsing in on itself so to speak and maybe that has something to do with me being sorta hopelessly frustrated lmfao. apologies

[themadauthorshatter]

Okay, so if you saw my poll post, you saw this coming, and, to make a long story short, this is a rewrite for the movie Robots

.

.

One thing right off the bat, I'm establishing that this will have more edge because I've seen to much whump posts and it's a movie about Robots, so we can be a little more loose with the rules.

We do start with seeing Rodney grow up and become the robot he is, but we're also seeing stuff like his schooling, seeing that even with hand-me-downs and being a 'misfit' he is a bright student and does well and is very humble about it. In this school, there are both outmodes and "new model" robots that are shiny and pretty, and one of these robots is Cappy, who is also a bright student. The two know each other more and talk frequently, because they're friends and they're nice to each other, but Cappy leaves for the city because that's where robots really shine. Both do watch the Bigweld show and are inspired, but Cappy, as she leaves for the city, tells Rodney to keep doing what he's doing and not give up, because he can shine no matter what he's made of. For clarification purposes, this would happen MAYBE a few years before Rodney graduates school and works at the same restaurant as his dad.

Also established early is Ratchet, who starts off as an assistant to Bigweld before rising in ranks. In the ealry chapters of the movie, he'd be scene in the background of the show, but he steadily moves closer until he's eventually a spokesman in the show itself before it ends.

Wonderbot is still here and acts as a sort of voice of reason for Rodney because he just doesn't listen to his own sometimes, something that will come nack a few times.

A lot of the story stays the same, Rodney is a big fan of Bigweld, he's a bot that's gotten hand-me-downs all his life, he's a skilled inventor, all that jazz.

The only real tweek I can think of is he has a small amount of resentment for not being all new and shuny like some other robots he sees and it hurts him and makes him lash out at his parents and himself, and even Cappy, but Cappy reminds Rodney that being shiny isn't all that great because there are only two colors in being shiny: Chrome and gold. Any darker or 'dyed' metal isn't considered "new and pretty" so she's stuck looking boring and dull next to everyone else. Her upgrades don't serve a purpose except for aesthetics and the only thing that isn't an aesthetic that she's allowed to have are her roller blade heels, and she hates them because she didn't even want them in the first place. She compares all that to Rodney, who is colorful, easy to look at, FUN to look at, his upgrades DO something for him and he can always switch out hand-me-downs and make himself something new. It's a whole emotional scene, but what it boils down to is Cappy, a robot that is rich enough for upgrades 24/7 and is going to the big city for the big name status, is essentially cracking under the pressure and also has some anger towards Rodeny who has an easy life, in her eyes, and yet he's complaining about it. Rodney does also express that he has some anger towards Cappy for the same reason, but admits that he's also just tired of seeing upgraded robots be snooty and talk about how he and his family are ones that use hand-me-downs and spare parts rather than upgrades because it gets to be degrading after a while. Rodney does apologize and make it up to his parents, and even learns for himself the benefits of his hand-me-downs price to be more durable than some of the upgrades; MORE ON THIS LATER

Rodney is still called a hand-me-down and his dad still works as a dishwasher, and his big "I need to find a need" moment comes from wanting to make his father's job a little easier. His mom is supportive, but makes sure that he knows to not get too caught up in the hand-me-down or "outmode" stuff, even telling him what being an "outmode" means more clearly than Cappy.

Rodney still leaves for Bigweld city, telling his mother that he wants to be someone, then explaining that he wants to be more than Rodeny the Hand-me-down son of a dishwasher, that he wants to invent and improve people's lives and simply be MORE. Both parents accept this, though Rodney's mother is more reluctant because this is her only son, and Rodeny leaves as he promises to make both parents proud, though both admit that he already does.

IN THE BIG CITY!!!!!! Not much changes when Rodney first arrives. He still runs into Fender and Deisel, still ends up looking for Bigweld Industries, and still takes the ball transport with Fender on accident. The two share some small talk, mainly Fender learning where Rodney's trying to go and then giving a hint that Bigweld isn't around anymore with a forced encouraging smile and a mention that Fender has a place to stay.

The "ride" goes about the same, but Fender is literally knocked away by the giant hammer right as he's about to tell Rodney to look for him as night falls.

Rodeny meets Tim and the exchange stays the same, but when Rodeny asks how people get in and join the industry itself and why the rules changed, Tim says they left with Bigweld before "leaving on a lunchbreak."

Our real introduction to Ratchet remains mostly the same. The only thing that will change is he's somewhat focused on Cappy, who has been working with the company for a while and is now worn down, tired, and all together jaded from events we don't know about(these will come to be known to be Bigweld's resignation). The plan to stop the production of spare parts in favor of upgrades is still here, and we see Cappy get very uncomfortable with it, and having an offoce near Ratchet, who has taken a subtle interest in her.

What changes is when Rodeny shows up, as in he still uses Wonderbot to fly to the window in order to get in. Cappy would see this and try not to react, firstly because there's a robot scrambling to commit a B and E, and then because it's RODNEY trying to commit a B and E, and then succeeding because he falls in and onto the board room table, and we get a classic reaction from both Cappy and Rodney:

"Rodney!?"

"Uh... Hi, Cappy."

Ratchet is not happy about seeing Rodney or almost getting hit by Wonderbot.

Rodney still apologizes and asks to see Bigweld, even explaining why he came in through the window, but Ratchet tells him that if the gate closes, that means Rodeny should turn tail and leave.

Rodney asks if he can at least tell him how to contact Bigweld or when he'll be back in, but Ratchet has a better idea:

Kicking both Wonderbot and Rodney out of the building.

Rodney is still magnetized and meets Tim again, who's shocked to see him. Rodney explains what happened and how Bigweld wasn't even there, then sees the new motto:

"Why be you, when you can be new?"

He asks Tim who he met, explaining what Ratchet looks like, and Tim explains back to him that he met the new head of Bigweld Industries and, seeing where Rodney is, probably doesn't like him or how his "outmoded" behind in the city.

Rodney asks why Ratchet is in Bigweld's chisr and spot, but Tim snaps for Rodney to get lost before he ends up in worse trouble.

Rodney is stuck more or less shuffling down the road, unable to properly lift his feet, and he encounters a Sweeper. It's something of a tense moment with Rodney being stuck to the sidewalk as the Sweeper draws close, but he evades it and ends up falling and getting himself stuck in a large can.

The Chop Shop scene happens as usual, but Gasket, being a mother, asks Ratchet why he looks disgruntled and isn't his usual self. He tries denying it, but she eventually makes him reveal that Rodeny is around and she only thinks to keep her ear to the ground because it's been years since they had a persistent inventor try to throw things off.

There's more to this, but I'll make that a part 2. Hope you enjoyed!!

[aceofwhump]

You're a Hallmark Christmas movie fan, right? Might I recommend Noel Next Door for a solid one that ALSO includes whump? The male lead suffered a stroke some years before and so has a partially paralyzed left arm and walks with a cane for the entire movie (spoiler - in the flash forward at the end, you can see he's finally starting to get results from PT), but there's a lovely amount of caretaking and chronic pain (which made it very sweet and relateable to me)

Hi nonny! Omg so I watched it last night and I really enjoyed it!! Thanks for the rec (I do enjoy Hallmark holiday movies!)

It's so nice to see Hallmark branching out into different storylines and diverse characters. Like this year there's a movie for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and a couple Asian American centered films and this one with a male lead who has a physical disability.

I enjoyed the story for Noel Next Door a lot! They had good chemistry together and I loved their interactions. Her kid annoyed me and I was definitely on his side. But yeah I really enjoyed it! I loved the soft moments of care and the angst. I loooved his love of music. As a musician myself the look on his face at the end when they're at the concert was so real I almost cried. Also I love a good ole "misunderstood grouch" story lol. Thanks for the rec!

[wolfeyedwitch]

since i sent a bad things happen bingo for bailey it's only fair to them that i send something nice too... 🤗+🧣?

🤗 - A warm hug

🧣 - A fluffy blanket

CW: past torture, touch starved whumpee

---

Zera volunteered to get Bailey settled after the horrifying mix-up that was inviting them to training. All the heroes were frazzled, but their feelings about the situation were secondary to Bailey's.

See, to the heroes, training meant, well, training. To Bailey's former teammates, "training" was apparently a code word for "torture". Or at least, near enough to make no real difference. They only learned of this when Bailey showed up to training, pale-faced and trembling, and expected to be used as target practice.

Every time Zera thought they had all of Bailey's triggers figured out, they somehow managed to trip right into another one. Fuck Slipknot and their sadistic cronies.

"Is Tempest angry?" Bailey asked, voice tiny. "That I disrupted your training?"

Zera took a slow breath before answering that. They wanted to scream, to punch Slipknot in the face, to go back in time and prevent these horrible things from ever happening to Bailey in the first place. Since none of those options were helpful, they had to choose something a little more constructive.

"Bailey, can I hug you?" they asked.

Bailey looked startled, but nodded after a moment's pause.

Zera wrapped their arms around Bailey, pulling them in tight. They were just a bit taller than the former villain, letting them encircle Bailey like they could be their shield.

Bailey stiffened at the initial contact, then melted. How long had they gone without any kind touch?

"Tempest isn't mad at you," Zera said into Bailey's hair. "None of us are mad at you."

"But... you are mad," Bailey managed, voice muffled from where their face was buried in Zera's shoulder.

"Of course we are, but not at you," Zera said. "We're mad at Slipknot, at all the villains who called themselves your teammates. We're mad at what happened to you."

"Oh," Bailey said.

Zera pulled back from the hug enough to look Bailey in the eye. "You did nothing wrong," they said. "I know that's hard to believe, so I'll repeat it as often as you need. This isn't your fault, we aren't mad at you, and you did nothing wrong."

Bailey's lips trembled. "Pretty sure I've done a lot wrong," they said.

"Not today; not here," Zera replied.

"Oh," Bailey said again.

Zera got the feeling that further attempts to convince Bailey on the matter wouldn't go over well, so they dropped the subject.

"You wanna watch something?" they asked instead. "We've got a bunch of movies; we could find something light-hearted."

Bailey nodded. "I... I'd like that."

Zera grinned, expression a little wobbly. "Great. How about you pick something out, and I'll grab some snacks?"

Bailey nodded.

As they sat together on the couch, sharing a fluffy blanket between them, Zera found themself paying more attention to Bailey than to the movie. Today had been rough; it was another unexpected difficulty in Bailey's recovery. Doubtless there would be more nasty surprises along the road.

It was worth it, to see Bailey as relaxed and comfortable as they were right then.

---

Taglist:

@heathenville @nonbinary-disaster @kim-poce @whump-world @dolls-circus @pickleking8 @appleejuice @cupcakes-and-pain @badluck990 @mylifeisonthebookshelf @pumpkin-spice-whump @deluxewhump @extemporary-whump @whumpwillow @multiple-characters1-acct @sunflower1000 @fleur-des-lore @equestrianwritingsstuff, @scp-1296 @livingforthewhump @thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight @suspicious-whumping-egg @kaiwewi @lelly-belly @neuro-whump @newbornwhumperfly @whumpthisway, @whumpcreations, @wicked-whump @heart4brains, @myhusbandsasemni @how-to-be-a-hero @kixngiggles @kurochan @whumpsday @extrabitterbrain @pattonvirglsanders @neverthelass @we-write-as-one @elrys-creates @whumperflies-and-roses @ha-ha-one

[99point9percentwhump]

Any recs for whumpy things on tubi?

Depending on what you like and what is available where you are YES!

BN: will update and please drop a note in my ask box if titles are unavailable so people can see what's available to them The following is available in the USA:

Merlin's Apprentice (2006) [fun miniseries highly rec - KO, drowning, peril]

Labyrinth (2011) [miniseries some niiiice whump good show - drugged, kidnapped, shot]

Drive (2011) [VERY GORY but also good - shot?]

Carlito's Way Rise to Power [My first Jay Hernandez movie worth a watch - shot, hospital]

Outlander (2008) [Vikings and aliens its fun and super whumpy high rec! - ko, captive, threatened, etc]

Ronin (1998)[ some nice gunshot whump]

Rockford Files [TV series thats one of the best he is whumped close to every ep]

Running Scared (2006) [very heavy mature (AS IN REAL LIFE CRIME) but very well done redemption story - wounded, car crash]

Platoon Leader (1987) [an underrated war flick - caught in an explosion]

Stalag 17 (1953) [classic cant go wrong - beaten]

Charro! (1968) [Elvis Presley western whump XD -  manhandled, branded]

Bird of Paradise (1932) [one of the best super whumpy and romance]

Django Kill…if You Live, Shoot! (1967) [very different western excellent whump]

Jason and the Argonauts (2000) [another lesser known miniseries - KO, peril]

King's Faith (2013) [HIGHLY rec for the movie and whump - beaten, cared for]

Saints and Soldiers (2003) [war related whump]

Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (2012) [war related whump]

Saints and Soldiers: The Void (2014) [war related whump]

To End All Wars (2004) [POW, imprisonment, beatings etc]

Alone we Fight (2014) [war related whump]

Dragonfyre (2014) [One of my favorites - shot with arrow, collapse ]

Outcast (2013) [wounded, collapse, cared for fever]

Abigail (2019) [wounded, unconscious]

Hunters Prayer (2017) [VERY good - peril, fights, addiction, withdrawal]

Solomon Kane (2009) [Not my thing but the whumps solid for those who like it]- wounded cared for]

Rising Hawk (2019) [one of my newest discoveries HIGHLY rec]

The Rangers: Bloodstone (2021) fun fantasy action - beaten, beaten again, KO, cared for]

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Stay Alive (For Me)

Summary: Janus has never thought of being a private detective as something particularly dangerous beyond the case he’s working on, but when he gets a call from a serial killer he’s been tracking down who’s kidnapped Virgil, he might need to make some mental revisions to that assumption.

Virgil, meanwhile, is just trying not piss his kidnapper off.

Author’s Note: So, my dear friend @shadowling-guistical graduated college recently and needs to be celebrated for such an outstanding feat!  So I wrote her an anxceit whump fic.  Mishii, you are something else and I love you dearly.  Enjoy!

Out of all the ways Virgil had expected to spend his two weeks alone while Patton and Logan were camping, getting kidnapped hadn’t been on the list.  Honestly, his main expectation had been to spend most of it home alone and rewatching old horror movies.  He hadn’t expected to wake up in complete darkness with a pounding headache, tied to a chair.

The last part had taken him longer to realize, because the pounding headache part had made it hard to assess his surroundings at first.  But when he tried to shift and sit up, he was met with the realization that he was already seated, and also that he couldn’t move his arms or legs.

“Don’t try and struggle,” a voice said.  “I won’t hurt you if you cooperate.”

“Oh, gee, thanks so much,” Virgil muttered, keeping his voice too quiet for the other person to hear because he wasn’t an idiot.  “Who are you?”

“Nice try,” the voice said, and Virgil could practically hear him rolling his eyes.  “But that’s not your concern.  You’re just here until I get what I want.”

“I’m ransom then, awesome.”  Virgil looked around, trying to find the source of the voice and trying to figure out if he had any memory of how he’d gotten here.  He vaguely remembered going to bed last night… then waking up in the middle of the night to someone grabbing him.  When they felt him stir they slammed his head into his headboard, which was probably why it was pounding.

Virgil’s gaze finally landed on a shape over in the shadows as his eyes continued to adjust.

“In a sense,” the man said, and didn’t say anything else.

“What, I don’t even get to know why I’m here?” Virgil asked.  “That seems like a common courtesy I’m owed, doesn’t it?”

The man walked forwards a couple steps and slapped Virgil across the face.  Virgil blinked in surprise.  His cheek started to sting.

“I told you to cooperate,” the man hissed.  “Listen next time.”

Virgil swallowed, and the man walked over and sat back down where he’d been before.

“How long am I going to be here?” Virgil asked weakly, trying to brace himself in case the man decided to come over and slap him again.

Luckily for that possibility, however, the man seemed more interested in pulling out his phone and dialing a number, which probably meant Virgil was about to get some information about what the hell was happening.  Especially since, after it started ringing, the man put it on speaker and looked back at Virgil.

“You’re going to speak first,” he said.  “Say anything about where you are and you’ll be moved.”

Virgil wasn’t stupid enough to snap back that he didn’t even know where he was.  He imagined saying anything about being in a dark room with whoever the hell this was would qualify as that.  He wasn’t sure what the hell to expect when the phone was picked up, but it certainly wasn’t what happened.

“Remus, if that’s you again I swear to god.  I can and will get a new phone number—”

“Janus?”

There were a couple long seconds of silence.

“Virgil?”

Before Virgil could say anything else, the man across from him spoke up instead.  “Hello, Janus.  Lovely to hear from you again,” he said, like he hadn’t called Janus.

Janus was silent for another couple seconds.  “Francis?  What the hell are you playing at—”

Francis took the phone off speaker and put it to his ear before Janus could get any further along in that sentence.  “Do you understand my point now?  Keep quiet and no one gets hurt.”

Virgil’s throat went dry, as he started to realize how serious the situation he’d found himself in was.

“That option is not currently available,” Francis said to some response Janus gave, still sounding like a casual asshole.  “We can debate further in the future based on your behavior for the next week.  I’ll contact you again.”

Francis hung up the phone and set it to the side on something else, probably a table or another chair.

“You’re trying to use me to buy Janus’ silence?” Virgil asked, still a little bit in disbelief.  “That’s a terrible idea.”

Francis stood up, walked across the room, and smacked Virgil across the face again.  “What part of cooperate did you not understand?”

“Janus hates me, you idiot.  We haven’t spoken in years.  He’s not going to care what you do to me.”

This time a fist hit his cheek, and Virgil let out a cry of pain.  “If you don’t stop talking back,” Francis said.  “You’re not going to last the first week.”

Virgil bit his lip hard and kept his mouth shut, and after another moment Francis seemed satisfied, and walked over to sit down again.  It didn’t make Virgil’s point wrong.  It did make him screwed, if his only chance to get out of here was Janus caring about his well-being.

After another couple minutes, Francis walked around him to the other side of the room.  Virgil heard what sounded like a door opening.  Light spilled into the room as he did and illuminated a chair, a table, and nothing else.

“I’ll bring you food in a couple hours,” Francis said, then left, shutting the door behind him.

Virgil let out a shaky breath and leaned forward as much as he could.  Holy shit.  What the hell had he been dragged into?

…

Janus did not like waking up early.  This wasn’t necessarily a large problem, because unless a case he was working on required him to wake up early for some reason, he could sleep as late as he wanted, which meant that most days, he wasn’t up until ten, or later depending on what he’d done the night before.

So needless to say, Janus wasn’t too thrilled about getting a phone call that woke him up at 5AM.  He was less thrilled when he saw ‘Unknown Caller’ on the ID, which meant it was a 90% chance that Remus was calling him again.

Remus had been a client a few months ago.  Janus had helped him find his brother, who had vanished one night without saying anything (except a note about how he needed to ‘find himself’).  Remus had apparently gotten it into his head while they’d been figuring everything out that Janus was lonely.  And apparently his persistence knew no bounds, because he hadn’t stopped calling Janus since, and always with an unknown number that Janus couldn’t just block.

He also knew Remus would keep calling until he answered, though, so Janus sat up and tried to shake himself awake enough to put his best angry voice on.

“Remus, if that’s you again I swear to god.  I can and will get a new phone number—”

“Janus?”

It took Janus a couple seconds to process the voice, because he hadn’t heard it in so long, and frankly, he hadn’t thought he was going to hear it ever again.

“Virgil?”

Before Virgil could say anything else, a new, unfortunately also familiar voice spoke up.  “Hello, Janus.  Lovely to hear from you again.”

Janus squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shove down the sudden panic that arose in his chest.  “Francis?  What the hell are you playing at—”

“Do you understand my point now?” Francis cut him off.  “Keep quiet and no one gets hurt.”

Janus kept breathing, trying to move past the idea of Virgil alone with the man he’d suspected for a while now was a serial killer.  Why had he thought it was a horrible idea to go to the cops with his evidence again?  Well, because cops were garbage, but that wasn’t really the point right now.

“Let him go, Francis,” Janus said.  “He doesn’t have anything to do with this.  Let him go and leave him be.”

“That option is not currently available,” Francis said.  “We can debate further in the future based on your behavior for the next week.  I’ll contact you again.”

And with that, the fucker hung up.

Janus stared at the phone for another long moment, then jumped up from his bed and ran for the door.  He wasn’t going to use his own phone to do this.

He ran across the hall and started banging on his neighbor’s apartment door.  It took about a minute, but a very sleepy person answered.

“Janus?” Thomas murmured.  “What are you doing up in the middle of the night?”

“Can I borrow your phone?” Janus asked.

Thomas blinked at him a moment longer.  “Why?”

“Mine is dead, sorry, I just really need to call my, uh, friend, I’m worried about him.”

Thomas blinked a little more, still not looking quite awake.  “Okay, sure, just give me a second.”  He turned around and shut the door, disappearing back inside.  After far too long, he reappeared at the door, this time holding a phone.

“Thank you,” Janus said, snatching it from his hand before Thomas said anything.  “I’ll bring it right back.”  He walked across the hallway and went back into his own apartment.

He didn’t know Remus’ number since he always called with an unknown one, but he did know his brother’s.

Roman didn’t answer on the first call, because it was 5 in the morning and all reasonable people were sleeping.  He answered when Janus called again.

“Hello?”

“Roman?  It’s Janus.”

“Janus?  What the hell do you—” Roman cut himself off with a yawn.

“Is your brother with you by some miracle?”

“No?  It’s too early for this, Janus.”

“Can you give me his number?”

“Why?”

“Roman.”

“Okay, okay.  Hang on, I gotta find it.”  There was a long moment of silence as Roman was presumably going through his phone, and then he read out a number to Janus, who scribbled it down on the notepad he’d grabbed while Roman was doing that.

“Thanks, you can go back to sleep now,” Janus said, hanging up.  He dialed the number he’d written down, and got a much more chipper answer on the first ring.

“Joe’s Whore House, you got the dough, we got the hoe.”

“Remus.”

“Janny!” Remus called, sounding thrilled.  “Are you taking a page out of my book and calling me with unrecognizable numbers?  And here I thought you didn’t want to be friends!”

“Remus, I need your help.  You still have access to all of that illegal tracking stuff, right?”

“Hey, if the government uses it, how can it be illegal for me to—”

“Remus.”

Remus must have finally picked up on the seriousness in his tone, because he stopped.  “Janus, is something wrong?”

“Yes.  I need you to meet me somewhere we can talk in private but that won’t look shady.  How often are you at the library?”

“Oh, I try to convince them to put all of my monster fucking books in the kids section at least once a week.”

“Great, meet me in the study room as soon as you can.”

“Sure thing!” Remus called, and hung up.  Janus headed back out into the hallway and saw Thomas still standing there, rubbing at his eyes.

“Everything okay?” Thomas asked as Janus handed him his phone back.

“Yep, all good,” Janus lied, heading back across the hall to now pull some clothes on and get ready to head to the library.  He grabbed his car keys on the way through the door, and headed to his room to get dressed.  He did so quickly, and shoved the keys in his pocket, heading out towards his car.

He made it to the library about twice as quickly as he usually did, and headed towards the study room in the back of the library.  Remus was already there, and since it was early enough that the library was barely open, he was the only one who was.  He was sitting at a table near the back, in a place that would be hidden from any kind of cameras, and Janus was suddenly grateful that Remus was well-versed in this kind of thing.

“Hey,” Janus said, sitting down across from him.  “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course,” Remus said, sounding genuine.  “What’s wrong?”

“Did I ever mention Virgil when we were looking for your brother?”

Remus shook his head.

“Okay, well, he was my boyfriend a couple years ago.  We had a bad break up and falling out.  But I’ve been tracking this guy Francis, and—” Janus looked around one more time and lowered his voice.  “He apparently managed to track my history back that far and now he’s kidnapped Virgil.”

“Well, shit,” Remus said, leaning forward and lowering his voice too.  “How long’s he had him?”

“I can’t imagine too long,” Janus said.  “He called me just this morning.  But he hit me with one of those ‘keep quiet and no one gets hurt’ things.”

“Ah, so you need me to do all your dirty work while you sit around on your hands,” Remus said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, when you put it like that,” Janus grumbled.  “Look, this guy isn’t Roman.  He won’t know what to look for when you’re the one trying to find him, alright?  He’d know what to look for with me, he’s clearly done his research.  But I don’t think there’s much of a reason he’d be looking for you.  You know, except for the fact that I might have accidentally given him your name.”

“What?  Why the hell would you do that?”

“I thought it was you calling!  You only ever call me with unknown numbers, you idiot.”

Remus groaned.  “Okay.  I’ll have to be careful, but I think I can still pull that off.  Hang on, let me get you…”  He reached over inside his bag and dug around for a minute, then pulled out what looked like an ancient android phone.  “I’ll text you updates on that.  Any time frame I need to worry about?”

“He said we’d negotiate again in a week depending on my behavior.”  Janus put air quotes on the last word.

Remus wrinkled his nose.  “Okay.  Any chance I can be over at your house that day when he calls?”

“Yeah, I’ll text you the address,” Janus said, ignoring the instant objection at the idea of Remus knowing where he lived.  This was for Virgil.  It had to happen.  “I’ll see you then?”

Remus stood.  “Yep.  I’ve got stuff to do now.  Have fun stewing in panic for a week.”

“Gee, thanks,” Janus sighed, standing up too.  He was getting breakfast out.  He needed it right now.

…

Virgil didn’t stay tied in the chair forever.  Eventually Francis untied him and let him walk around, though obviously he wasn’t allowed to leave the room, and it was locked anyway.  Virgil didn’t have any real way to judge how time passed other than the three meals he got a day.  He mostly spent his time trying and failing not to freak out.  He had more than a couple panic attacks tucked back into a corner.

If this guy was willing to kidnap him and hurt him to keep Janus quiet, he had no reason to believe that he wouldn’t do worse.  His life was in very real danger, and he also had no reason to believe anyone would know or care.

Logan and Patton would care, but they were still camping out in the middle of nowhere for another week and a half.  Virgil hadn’t wanted to go because they were out in the country with no cell service, in nature with bugs and humidity.  He was kind of wishing he’d gone now.  Not that it would have meant this guy wouldn’t have been able to find him, necessarily, but Logan and Patton would at least know he was missing.  In the current situation, they could come back to find that Virgil was fucking dead.

And then there was Janus.  Virgil couldn’t imagine Janus had given him much thought after Francis had hung up the phone.  Janus wasn’t going to care what happened to him.  Virgil had months of fights that culminated in a break up to serve as proof of that.  Janus had outright said he hated him multiple times.  Not that Virgil hadn’t said the same thing back, but not being hated by Janus would have been a helpful little boost to getting out of this situation.

Virgil banged his head back against the wall, running over all of their fights again.  He’d never hated Janus, not really.  He’d just been so fucking angry.  Why had he said he hated him?  If he hadn’t done that, Janus might have at least been willing to try and help him, or call the cops, or something.  But Virgil had seen his face when he’d finally packed up and left.  Janus was probably at a bar celebrating right now.  Francis was such a fucking idiot.

The door opened again, and the idiot himself walked across the room and shoved a sandwich and a cup of water at Virgil.  Virgil took them both without a word, as he’d learned pretty quickly that was safer, and Francis left the way he came.

Virgil ate the sandwich and drank the water as fast as he could, as he’d also learned pretty quickly that if he didn’t do that, Francis came back in and took them both back.  This way, after five minutes he just came and took the empty cup.

Virgil usually got up and walked around for a while after he ate, since it was when he had the most energy and it meant he wasn’t simply sitting in the same spot panicking all day.  Sometimes he went over and laid on the two chairs and table he’d shoved against the wall as a makeshift bed and took a nap.  There wasn’t much to do as a hostage.  The monotony could almost be as bad as the panic sometimes.

Virgil tried to count the meals as day markers, but some days Francis definitely gave him one or two meals instead of three.  Either way, the week had to be close to up by now, didn’t it?  He couldn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but his anxiety was certainly deciding to treat it as a bad thing.

That worry tied with the monotony of being here meant that he couldn’t decide whether or not to be relieved when Francis came into the room with a cell phone out along with a meal.

“The same rules apply,” Francis said as he stood in front of Virgil as he ate.  “If you say anything about where you are, we’re moving.  But your boyfriend’s been good this week, so you get to be here while I make this call.”

Virgil wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Francis’ idea of Janus being ‘good’ was.  He ate the last bite of sandwich and drank the last of his water, and Francis turned to the phone.

Virgil shifted on the chair he was sitting on so he could tuck his legs against his chest.  The phone didn’t even get a chance to ring once before Janus picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Janus,” Francis said brightly.  “It’s lovely to speak with you again.”

“The feeling is not mutual,” Janus snapped back.  Virgil was surprised at the vitriol in his tone.

“Careful, Janus,” Francis said.  “You’ve been doing so well.  I’d hate for the situation to change because you can’t be polite.”

Janus didn’t say anything, and Virgil wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“I suppose you’ve been decent for the required amount of time, though,” Francis said.  “So some kind of reward is in order.”

He handed the phone over to Virgil and nodded at him, which Virgil supposed was his cue to talk.

“Janus?” he said, and his voice came out rough and scratchy.

“Virgil?” Janus said, his voice dropping into concern immediately, which took Virgil by surprise.  “Hey.  Are you alright?”

“Well,” Virgil said.  “I’ve been kidnapped.”

Janus gave a short laugh.  “Yeah, I know.  I’m so sorry you got dragged into this.  It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“You’re… sorry?” Virgil said slowly.

“Yeah.  I’m sure Francis was just looking for ways to silence me, and you were the first thing he found.  You shouldn’t have been involved at all.  I’m sorry.”

Virgil didn’t know what to say.  That made it sound like Janus was worried, or at least that he cared enough not to intentionally get Virgil killed.

…In retrospect, Virgil couldn’t think of many people who would do something like that.  Maybe that was more the anxiety talking than anything else.

“Are you alright?” Janus asked again after what must have been too long of a pause.

“So far,” Virgil muttered.  “I—”

“And that’s enough of that,” Francis said, snatching the phone from Virgil’s hands and taking the phone off speaker.  Janus must have said something angry, though, because a second later Francis set the phone on his lap and put it on speaker again, then grabbed Virgil’s hair and yanked.

Virgil cried out, more in surprise than pain, and moved to try and yank Francis’ hands down.  Unfortunately, Francis was much stronger than he was, and caught Virgil’s hands easily.  He took him by the arms and slammed him back against the wall, which this time resulted in a cry that was more pain than surprise.

“Stop it!” Janus snapped from the phone that was sitting over on the ground.  “Leave him alone!”

Virgil didn’t pay much attention to Francis’ reply, as he was more focused on him loosening his grip slightly as he turned back towards the phone.  Virgil bit his lip hard to steel his nerve and slammed his knee up in between Francis’ legs.  He didn’t stay long enough to hear Francis scream for too long, no matter how nice it would have been, because the second his hands let go of Virgil he was sprinting for the door.

It opened into a staircase, which Virgil started running up.  He must have been in some kind of basement or something.  He made it up the steps and into what looked like a mess of a house, and he took a couple seconds to locate what looked like the front door.  He sprinted for it and yanked the door open, heart in his throat, and started running outside, which was about when he realized the flaw in all of this plan, being that he was in the middle of a thick set of woods.

Virgil’s breathing started to quicken.  No, no, there wouldn’t be cell service in the middle of the woods.  If he could hear… cars.  That way.

Virgil started running, and made it almost to the treeline before the door slammed against a wall behind him.

“You little pest!”

Don’t look behind you, don’t look behind you, don’t look behind you—

The cars were getting louder in front of him.  He was definitely going the right way.  Virgil made it to the edge of the treeline and dove to the right.  He had never been too good at running, but it wasn’t long before he realized that wasn’t his main problem.  He hadn’t eaten enough that day.  Virgil tried to push himself further, to stop himself from slowing down, but the road still sounded too far away, and the footsteps behind him were getting closer.

Virgil swung himself around a tree and heard a satisfying thunk behind him, and kept running.  The road sounded close now, if he could just make it a little further… through those trees…

A hand on his arm.  Virgil screamed and pulled, only for his feet to skid on the mud in front of him, and he realized that the sound he thought was cars was actually a stream.

“Road was the other way,” Francis growled, and Virgil managed to look up above him before Francis slammed his elbow down on his face.

…

“Hello?  Virgil?  Virgil!”  Janus looked desperately over at Remus, who shrugged, looking just as nervous.  After another long couple minutes, Janus hung up.

“What happened?” he asked, like Remus would have a different answer now that he could use words.

Sure enough, Remus said “I don’t know,” and started looking back at his laptop again.  “I managed to track a signal down.  I’m not sure what happened at the end there.”

“You know where they are?” Janus asked, leaning over to look at Remus’ laptop.

“Yeah.  Not far out of town.  Maybe a half hour drive.” Remus closed the laptop and stood.  “I’ll head down there now.  I’ll bring Roman.”

“I’ll come too,” Janus said, standing to follow Remus.

“No you won’t,” Remus said, spinning and putting a hand on Janus’ chest to stop him.

“What— Remus!”

“If something goes wrong, you need to be sitting here like a good little boy and keeping quiet,” Remus said, moving to put his equipment back in his bag.  “I’ll keep in contact on your new terrible cell phone, or Roman will.”

“But—”

“Yeah, I know.”  Remus turned and put his hands firmly on Janus’ shoulders.  “I know.  But it’s safer for Virgil if you’re here, alright?  If this goes well, I’ll be back with him in a couple hours.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“I’ll keep you updated.”  And with that, Remus slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out his door and towards his car.

Janus stood there for a moment trying to decide what the hell to do now.  His brain wasn’t giving him any ideas, meaning after a second the answer turned out to be ‘pace anxiously back and forth across the floor.’  He pulled out the old phone every couple seconds in case Remus had tried to contact him and it hadn’t gone off for some reason.

But that hadn’t happened, of course, and Janus really just ended up pacing back and forth for half an hour.

Finally, however, the phone started ringing and lit up with Remus’ name, and Janus answered it instantly.

“That didn’t take long,” he said, despite how much it felt like the opposite.  “Does that mean good news?”

“They’re gone.”

Janus’ blood ran cold.  “What?”

“They’re gone.  Whatever happened at the end of the call must have been him moving them both.  I don’t know where they are.”

“What— okay, what now then?  You still have the information you used the first time, right?  We don’t have to wait for him to call again?”

“No, unless he ditched it entirely I should still be able to find him again.  But it’s going to depend on how fast they’re moving, too.  And if they go somewhere without phone service, it’ll be a lot harder.”

“What are you doing now, then?”

A muffled voice sounded that wasn’t Remus, and Remus yelled back that he was coming.  “We’re going to look through the house to see if we can find any clues, and then hang out here until the signal stops moving or vanishes.”

Janus nodded.  “Okay.  What can I do?”

“You’re not going to like my answer.”

“Remus.”

“You need to stay there, Janny.  He’s clearly able to know what you’re up to.  If he’s pissed at Virgil for some reason and he sees you running, he’s just going to do something worse.  You can help by staying there.”

He was right, and Janus knew it, but that didn’t make the idea any less horrendous sounding.  “Let me use this phone to help you track them.  I know what I’m doing too.”

“I don’t need help, Janus.  Roman and I have got this.”

“I know you do, I just… Remus, I need something to do.”

Remus was quiet for a moment, then sighed.  “Alright.  But it would take you longer to track someone on that phone than it would me with my laptop.  You can be in charge of travel routes.  But it doesn’t matter where he is, you stay put, okay?”

“I know.  You don’t have to tell me,” Janus snapped.  Remus was still right, but he’d had too much stress over the past hour, and it had all built up to a point where he had to snap at someone.  Hopefully Remus got that.

“Okay, just stay on the line if you’re going to be doing that.”

“I will,” Janus said, closing the phone app and opening the map.  “Let me know when you know where they are.”

“Will do.  Hey Janus?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to get him out, okay?”

“We better,” Janus muttered.  He took a deep breath.  “Thanks, Re.”

Remus must have put the phone on speaker, because a second later he heard Roman calling in the distance about things he was seeing.

Janus sat back down on his bed and listened, waiting for the moment that he could actually do something.  Remus was right.  They were going to get Virgil out, and it wasn’t going to take long now, dammit.  He was going to make sure of it.

…

Virgil was shaken awake the next time that consciousness assaulted him.  Consciousness didn’t feel like the only thing to have done so.

His entire body ached all over, especially his face.  It felt like his nose was broken from where Francis had slammed his elbow into it.  His legs ached from running so hard after not having enough food or movement for a week.  His arms felt bruised from where Francis had grabbed him and slammed him into the wall, and from where he was still grabbing them now.

Virgil whimpered and tried to shift himself out of Francis’ arms, but his head was still fuzzy and Francis was able to hold on much more tightly.

“Good, you’re awake,” Francis said, like he hadn’t just shaken Virgil awake himself.  Before Virgil could decide whether or not he wanted to spit something like that back, Francis lifted his leg up and slammed his foot down on Virgil’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Virgil wheezed and tried to catch his breath, but before that could happen, Francis picked him up bridal style and hoisted him high enough to drop him.  Virgil landed hard on his elbow and heard something snap.  Francis shoved a hand over his mouth to muffle his scream, pushing hard enough to bruise.

“Are you getting the picture yet?” he snapped.  “If you ever try to run again—”  He used his free hand to pick up Virgil’s broken elbow and slam it into the ground, then the wall next to them, then the ground again, over and over until Virgil had tears running down his face.  He removed his hand from Virgil’s mouth.  “Understand?”

“Please—” Virgil wheezed.

Francis pulled out something glinting and silver and dragged it down Virgil’s other arm.  Virgil shrieked, and Francis shoved a hand over his mouth again to muffle it, still pushing to the point of more pain.

“It’s a yes or no question,” Francis growled.  “You know what, don’t even speak, just nod or shake your head.  If you try and run again I will do worse.  Do you understand?”

Virgil nodded.

Francis pulled the knife out from Virgil’s arm and shoved him into the wall.  Virgil’s elbow dragging along the ground did wonders for how much pain he was in.

“This didn’t have to be personal,” Francis said, still sounding furious.  “It was meant to be a business transaction.  If you’d simply behaved until I was sure of Janus’ silence long-term, I would have let you go unharmed.”

Virgil’s elbow was hurting more the longer it was pressed underneath him, and the arm that Francis had sliced open was starting to pulse and bleed, but he didn’t dare move either of them.

“But you had to go and run,” Francis said.  “Really you have no one to blame for this but yourself.”

Or I could blame the guy who kidnapped me.  Y’know, just a thought, Virgil almost said.

“I’ll be back in a few hours with your dinner,” Francis said.  He started over towards a door down towards Virgil’s feet.  “And you know what, if you move before then, I’ll break your other elbow.”

He opened and left through the door, slamming it after him, and Virgil let out a broken sob.

He didn’t move.

…

Remus tracked Francis to an old abandoned church about an hour away from the last location.  Janus found him the quickest route there and then proceeded to go over and sit on his ass all over again.  He couldn’t even stay on the line this time, because Roman and Remus had to “focus” or some bullshit like that.

He paced back and forth until his stomach growled and he realized he’d barely eaten all day.  Janus went over to the pantry and pulled out a box of crackers.  He grabbed an entire stack and put them on a plate, then grabbed the peanut butter and slathered a spoonful on his plate, then started jamming the crackers into the peanut butter to the point of breaking many of them in half.

“He’s going to be fine,” Janus tried to reassure himself.  “Francis is dangerous, but Roman and Remus are two people.  And they’re both extremely capable and all that shit.  He’s going to be fine.  He’ll be alive when they get there and they’ll take him to the hospital and he’ll make a full recovery and he’ll be fine and you’re not going to have to be responsible for his death or anything like that.  That’s not going to happen for many reasons.  Not the least of which being Virgil is not going to die.”

Janus buried his head in his hands and screamed, doing his best to muffle it with his hands.

Evidently he didn’t do such a great job of muffling it, though, because a couple seconds later a frantic set of knocks came on his door.

Janus’ brain apparently liked the idea of doing anything, so he jumped up and rushed over to the door.  He opened it to find Thomas, looking very concerned.

“Are you alright?” he asked, sounding just as concerned as he looked.  “I heard screaming, is something wrong?”

“Uh—” Janus tried to come up with a response to that, looking around for an excuse, but his eyes just ended up landing on the crushed crackers and peanut butter.  As a result, Thomas’ eyes ended up there too, and he spoke again a second later.

“Hey,” he said, and Janus glanced back over.  “Do you want to come back across to my apartment, and I can give you some of my leftover chicken noodle soup?  You… kinda look like you need it.”

Janus swallowed.  “Okay,” he said weakly.  “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Thomas smiled slightly, and Janus grabbed his key off the hook by the door before following Thomas across the hall.

Thomas got a tub of chicken noodle soup out from his fridge and put it in a bowl to heat up, and Janus sat down at the table and put his head in his hands, trying again to breathe.

“Oh my goodness, are you alright?” Thomas asked.  “I mean, obviously not, just… do you want to talk about it?”

Janus looked up and shook his head.  Not yet.

“Are you sure?”

Janus nodded.

“Okay,” Thomas said, looking unsure.  The microwave went off, and Thomas took the soup out, stirred it, and put it back in for another minute.

“Why are you doing this exactly?” Janus asked as Thomas turned around.  “You barely know me.”

Thomas shrugged.  “I don’t know, you’ve always seemed nice, and… rather lonely, if I’m being honest.”

“You don’t need to be honest if you don’t feel like it,” Janus grumbled, leaning his chin on his hand.  Yes, he didn’t have a ton of company over, but did Thomas really have to be so obvious about it?

Thomas cleared his throat awkwardly.  “I just… you’ve seemed really tense lately and I wanted to make sure you’re alright.  If you need a friend right now, you can talk to me.”

Janus winced.  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” he said.  “I’m starting to think it’s not exactly… safe, for me to have friends.”

Thomas stared at him for a moment.  “Not safe?” he asked in bewilderment.  “Why wouldn’t it be safe?”

Before Janus could answer, the microwave went off, and Thomas turned to pull the soup out.  He stirred it again and walked over to hand it to Janus.

“Thanks,” Janus said quietly, and blew on a spoonful before taking a bite.  “This is good,” he said in surprise.

“Yeah, well don’t expect anything else out of me, that’s like the one thing I know how to make,” Thomas said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Janus laughed a little.  “I’m a pretty good cook under normal circumstances,” he said.  “Don’t judge me by my cracker mauling in there.”

Thomas laughed back.  “It looked like you went to war with them,” he said.

“They had it coming,” Janus said, taking another spoonful of soup.  “They know what they did.”

Thomas laughed again, and Janus pretended not to smile as he focused on the soup.  Before he could eat too much of it though, the phone in pocket rang, and Janus switched directions entirely, snatching it out and answering it before it finished ringing once.  “Remus?”

“I caught a dickwad!” Remus called happily.

“Is Virgil okay?” Janus asked, heart racing.

“Roman’s looking for him.  I get to watch Francy-pie sleep until the cops get here.  I think I’m gonna need you to call them though, I don’t want to take my focus off of this guy.”

“Yeah.  Keep me updated.”

“I will,” Remus said, and hung up.  Janus’ entire body sagged forward as all the tension rushed out of him at once.

“Are you alright?” Thomas asked, sounding concerned again.

Janus nodded.  “I’ve got to call the cops now.  You still want to know what happened?”

Thomas nodded.

“Alright, pay attention,” Janus said, and pulled out his other phone.

…

Virgil had to fight not to shrink in on himself when the door slammed open again.  He braced himself for whatever Francis was going to do this time, because it definitely hadn’t been long enough that he was bringing dinner.

But to his surprise, when he looked over towards the door, he saw someone who wasn’t Francis.  And instead of storming angrily towards him, he moved over and crouched down.  “Hey, are you alright?”

“Who are you?” Virgil asked.

“My name’s Roman.  I’m a friend of Janus.  My brother and I came here to get you out.”

“Where’s Francis?”

“Remus is holding him upstairs.  He or Janus should have called the cops at this point.  Are you hurt?”

Virgil nodded.  “I think my elbow is broken,” he muttered, finally shifting so he wasn’t lying on it anymore.  “And my nose.  And he stabbed me in the arm.”  He lifted the one he meant and winced at the sting when he moved it.  Roman pulled out his phone and shined a flashlight on it, and Virgil squinted his eyes against the sudden light.  After a moment he opened them again and looked around.  It seemed like he was in another basement.

“It doesn’t look like it’s bleeding anymore,” Roman said.  “Did it feel like it was bleeding too badly before?”

“I mean, I don’t think I got lightheaded or anything,” Virgil muttered.

“Okay, I don’t have much of an idea what that means,” Roman said.  “You’re definitely going to need to go to a hospital anyway.  Can you stand?”

“I think so,” Virgil said, taking Roman’s offered hand with his non-broken elbow.  He still ached all over, but he felt like he could walk okay.  He still used the railing to get up the steps.

They both exited the basement into what looked like an old church that thankfully didn’t look old or in danger of collapse, despite looking abandoned.  Francis was unconscious over by the doors and being sat on by someone who looked exactly like Roman, which was more than a little unexpected.

“I guess that’s one way to restrain someone,” Virgil muttered.

The person glanced up and grinned.  “You must be Virgey!  Hi, I’m Remus!  I’ve heard a ton about you.  I hope you don’t mind, I took the liberty of knocking your captor unconscious.”

“And it seems now that the danger is over, so is your capacity for being able to take things seriously,” Roman muttered.

“I’ve been serious for way too long, Ro-bro.  I needed a break.  Hey, Virgey.  If you want to come punch this guy in the face, I’ll tell the cops it was necessary to knock him out.”

Virgil walked over and kicked Francis’ nose, and heard a satisfying crack that sounded similar to his own.  Francis shifted like he was going to wake up, and Virgil kicked him again.

Remus was grinning when he glanced back over.  “I’m gonna like you, aren’t I?” he said.

“Remus, have you called Janus yet?” Roman asked, crossing his arms and seeming very done with his brother’s antics.

“On it!” Remus called, pulling out a phone and hitting a couple buttons before passing the phone to Virgil.  “You want first dibs?”

Virgil winced slightly when moving his left arm, but it was better than trying to grab the phone with his broken elbow.  Roman walked over to talk to Remus, and Virgil moved to sit on one of the pews.  He put the phone up to his ear just as someone who was very distinctly not Janus answered it.  “Hello?”

“Uh, hi?” Virgil said.

“Who is this?” the person who was not Janus asked.

“Uh… who is this?”

“I’m Thomas.  If you’re trying to talk to Janus, he’s on the phone with the police.”

“Oh.  Uh, I’m Virgil.”

“Oh!  You’re the person he was worried about!” Thomas called, and there came a sudden call from Janus in the background.

There were shuffling sounds, and a couple seconds later, Virgil caught the tail end of Janus’ sentence.  “—and once they turn there, it’s like five minutes to the church,” he said.  “Virgil?”  His voice cleared up, and it sounded like he was speaking into the phone now.

“Hey, Janus,” Virgil said, trying not to sound as exhausted as he felt.

“Hey,” Janus said, and Virgil realized that maybe it would be okay, because Janus sounded just as exhausted.  “Are you alright?”

Virgil tried to come up with some way to believably lie for half a second before giving up.  “No.”

Janus let out a shaky breath that Virgil could hear over the phone.  “Yeah,” he said.  “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this, Virgil.  I didn’t mean for— well.  I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d care,” Virgil said quietly.

There was a moment of dead silence on the other end of the phone.  “What?”

“I don’t know,” Virgil muttered, feeling kind of silly now.  “I mean, it might have partly been how freaked out I was, I just… I don’t know.”

“You thought I wasn’t going to care if you got kidnapped because we had a bad break up?”

“It was like, a really bad break up,” Virgil muttered.

Janus gave a short disbelieving laugh.  “Of course I cared, you moron,” he said, and Virgil took a moment to take in how absolutely wrecked Janus sounded.  He probably really did, huh?

“Oh,” Virgil said, and his voice did not crack there, that would be so stupid.  “Okay.”

“Are you okay?” Janus asked again, and he sounded like he was crying now.

Virgil sniffed.  “Not really,” he said, and then they were both crying, and Virgil pulled his knees up to his chest and cradled the phone with his good arm like it was something precious, and cried with Janus over the phone.

Someone on the other end said something quietly in the background.

“Okay,” Janus said, and Virgil heard him sniff.  “Virgil, the police will be there soon, okay?  They’re bringing an ambulance to take you to the hospital if you need to.”

Virgil nodded, then remembered Janus couldn't see him.  “I do,” he confirmed.  He managed to avoid sniffing again.

Janus didn’t manage the same.  “Alright,” he said.  “Do you want me to stay on the line?”

“Uh-huh,” Virgil said, and so Janus did.  Neither of them said much until Virgil heard more talking coming from over by Roman and Remus, and looked over to see police stopping by Remus and people who looked like emergency services coming over to help him.

Virgil gave them the name of a hospital covered by his insurance, and then followed them towards the ambulance.  He gave Janus the name and address of the hospital they’d be going to, and then Janus said he’d meet him there and hung up.  Virgil gave the phone back to Remus as he passed him.

Someone gave him a shock blanket when they got to the ambulance, and Roman seemed to have followed them over and got in the ambulance with them, which Virgil was grateful for.  He didn’t know Roman that well, but it was better than being there with a bunch of strangers.

“The police shouldn’t have many questions for you, since they have Francis,” Roman said.  “But they might end up having some, is that okay?”

“Not right away,” Virgil said instantly.  “Maybe tomorrow?”

Roman nodded.  “I’ll make sure to let someone know.”

“Thanks,” Virgil said, wincing and gasping in pain as someone started looking at his elbow.

“Sorry,” one of the nurses said.  “I’ll be as careful as I can, okay?”

Virgil nodded at him, and he was more gentle after that.  A different nurse looking at his nose seemed to finish doing so a second later.

“It doesn’t need to be reset,” she said.  “It’s just going to have to heal overtime, okay?”

Virgil nodded.

Someone must have finished something they needed too, because the doors were shut and they started pulling away.  Roman texted Remus to let him know where they were, and then they headed towards the hospital.

Virgil wasn’t injured in any way that they’d need to keep him overnight for, so by the time Janus arrived, apparently having been driven by Thomas, they were mostly done with everything that needed to happen.

That didn’t mean that Virgil wasn’t grateful to see him, though.  Janus crossed the room and started anxiously looking him over as if Virgil didn’t have several nurses and a doctor already doing that.

Virgil’s right elbow was now in a sling, his left arm was bandaged and someone had put tape on his nose for what felt like no real reason, but was definitely super important or something.  It wasn’t long after Janus and someone who must have been Thomas came in that Virgil was done being looked over and given the freedom to go, and Janus instantly moved in where they’d been.

“Hey,” he said, raising his hands up to about the height of Virgil’s shoulders and looking like he wanted nothing more than to hold him close.  Luckily for him, Virgil wanted something similar, and stepped into Janus’ open arms.

Janus gave a sigh of relief and wrapped his arms gently around him, being mindful of both of his arms.

“Hey,” Virgil said back.  “How’ve you been?”

Janus laughed, sounding bitter and maybe a little hysterical.  “How do you think, you moron?”

“Mmm,” Virgil mumbled, laying his head on Janus’ shoulder and breathing in a smell that wasn’t hospital sterilization.  “Drive me home?”

“Of course,” Janus murmured back.

“Nope, I’m driving you both home,” said a new voice, and Virgil glanced over to see this Thomas person.  “You both look like a mess.”

“Ugh, fine,” Janus groaned.  “Virgil, if I may introduce you to the world’s most persistent neighbor.”

“We’ve had like two conversations!” Thomas exclaimed, and Virgil laughed a little, which felt good.

He headed down towards Thomas’ car, and said goodbye to Roman and Remus, who’d followed the ambulance, at the door.  He got the phone numbers of both of them scribbled on a piece of paper in case he wanted to talk.  Virgil wasn’t opposed to the idea.  They both seemed cool.

He climbed into the backseat and used his slightly-less-fucked-up arm to pull Janus in after him, ignoring the pain shooting through it, because he wanted to be hugged the whole way back and Janus was just as good at them as he remembered.

Virgil wrote his address on the phone number paper and handed it to Thomas so he could drive him home, and they ended up at the apartment building much quicker than Virgil would have liked.

“Here,” Thomas said, adding his own phone number to the paper.  “You can call me if you ever want some chicken noodle soup.”

Virgil didn’t really understand, but he smiled weakly anyway.  “Thanks.”  He regretfully pulled himself out of Janus’ arms and shoved the paper in his pocket, then stepped out of the car.

He looked up at the building.  He’d have to go all the way up to his apartment alone.

“Here,” Janus said suddenly, hopping out after him.  “Let me walk you in.”

Virgil’s chest loosened at the thought.  “Okay,” he said quietly, and led them both inside.  They made it up to the third floor, and Virgil headed down towards apartment 3C, Janus following him.

He half expected the apartment to be a mess when he walked in, but everything was exactly how he’d left it, down to the car keys on the door and the dirty dishes in the sink.

He made it to his kitchen table before collapsing into one of the chairs.  Janus hesitantly stopped at the one across from him before Virgil made some vague gesture that he hoped Janus would take as ‘sit down.’  He did.

“Holy fuck,” Virgil said, burying his head in his hands.  Or, hand.  One of them was still in a sling due to his broken elbow.

“Yeah,” Janus agreed quietly.

“What did you do?” Virgil asked.  “How did you find me?”

Janus explained how he knew Remus and Roman, and how Remus had the same tracking abilities he did, but that he couldn’t use due to Francis watching him.  Virgil listened and nodded along, with a question forming as he did so.

“Janus,” he said when he finished.  “That makes it sound like the reason Francis went after me is because you haven’t made any friends since we broke up.”

“Hey, I have friends!  I have… Thomas.”

“The Thomas who earlier said that you’ve had two conversations?”

“Shut up.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow.  “Janus, seriously?  You haven’t made any friends in literal years?”

“Yes, because clearly that would be such a great idea, given everything that just happened,” Janus said, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, hell no.  You are not using this as another excuse to isolate yourself.”

“Fine.  I have plenty of other excuses.”

“Janus.”

Janus didn’t say anything.  Fine.  Virgil could play the long game.  It’s not like he was about to let Janus slide effortlessly out of his life again.

“Well, you probably want some rest,” Janus said after another moment, standing.  And to Virgil’s surprise, he didn’t have to fake the spike of panic that hit him in the slightest.

“Janus!” he exclaimed, desperately, using his slightly-less-fucked-up arm to push himself up.  He winced and sat back down, realizing he still probably shouldn’t have done that.  Janus looked back at him, making half of a movement to come closer but not going through with it.

Virgil swallowed.  “Stay?” he said quietly.  He looked away.  “Please.”

After a pause, he saw Janus sit back down out of the corner of his eye.  “Alright,” he said.  “Let me text Thomas.”

Virgil nodded, and sat back down too.  He was quiet until Janus set his phone aside and looked back at him again.  “Do you want me to make you something to eat?” he asked.

“I can do it,” Virgil said instantly, before looking down at his arms and realizing that no, he probably couldn’t.

“I’ll make you some grilled cheese,” Janus said.  “Sound good?”

“Yeah, okay,” Virgil muttered.  “I think I’m gonna go, like.  Shower.  And get changed.”

“Okay.  I’ll try to have it done by the time you get back out here.”

“Thanks,” Virgil said, and he headed back towards his bedroom.

…

Janus didn’t go home the next day.  Turns out having one badly broken elbow and one arm that had been stabbed and hurt a little every time you moved it made it kind of hard to do things yourself.  Virgil kind of despised the idea of needing help at all, but… it was Janus.  So it wasn’t so bad.

Janus went with him to talk to the police the next day, and Roman and Remus showed up too, since they’d been the ones to get him out.  All four of them were questioned, and Virgil didn’t love learning the fact that Francis was an actual serial killer.  He did enjoy learning that he was behind bars for now and was almost certainly going to end up in jail after his trial too.

They all went out to eat after that just to bring a positive end to the day, and Thomas met up with them there.  All in all, it could have been worse.  Virgil was not looking forward to the trial, but everyone had already told him they would be there to help.

A week passed, and Janus was still at his house.  They settled into a routine, of Janus kind of helping Virgil manage to exist again, and Virgil begrudgingly accepting that help.  The nightmares didn’t really surprise him.  Janus started sleeping in his bed with him after the first two nights, not that either of them were going to mention that.  His left arm healed fairly quickly, since his wound was shallow and had stopped bleeding even without any kind of effort on his part.  That meant that after a couple days, he could do most one-handed tasks without pain.  It would take a while before he could do two handed tasks again.

Virgil hadn’t exactly forgotten about Patton and Logan, but he’d had other things on his mind, and they were out of cell service anyway, meaning they ended up going on a back burner as Virgil tried to figure everything else out.  On the day when they were supposed to come back, and his phone lit up with Patton’s name, Virgil instantly grabbed Janus’ hand and squeezed from where they were watching a movie together on the couch.

Janus squeezed back as Virgil answered the phone.

“Hey, Virge!” Patton called brightly.  “We just got back into cell service, finally.  How did your two weeks of being alone and watching horror movies go?”

Virgil winced.  “Uh, yeah,” he said shakily.  “Fun story, Pat.”

“What’s a fun story?  Are you alright, Virgil?  You sound kind of shaken up.”

“Can you… can you just come here, Patton?  You and Logan?  I need to tell you guys something.”

“Oh, right now?  We were kind of looking forward to getting home, kiddo—”

“Please.”

Patton must have picked up on the tone of his voice, because he didn’t say anything for a minute.  “Okay,” he said quietly.  “Are you okay, Virgil?”

“I’m… not really.  No.”

“Oh, goodness.  We’ll be right there, kiddo.”

“Okay,” Virgil said, and hung up before he started crying or something stupid like that.

Janus squeezed his hand again, and Virgil turned and tucked himself under his arm.  Janus wrapped his arm gently around his shoulder, and they both sat in silence for a long moment.

“Want to talk?” Janus said quietly.

Virgil shook his head.  “Patton and Logan are coming over.  Friends.  They were camping.”

“Okay.”

Patton and Logan got there a couple hours later, and both were immediately concerned when they noticed Virgil’s injuries.

Their concern did not lessen when Virgil told them what had happened.  When he finished, Patton instantly moved to hug him, and Logan climbed up and laid a hand on Virgil’s shoulder, which was basically a bear hug coming from Logan.

“Oh, Virgil,” Patton whispered, squeezing Virgil gently.  “Oh kiddo, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry that happened.”

Virgil squeezed him back as tightly as he could manage with one arm.

“Likewise,” Logan said, and Virgil could hear the emotion just under his voice.  “Please… please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.”

Virgil nodded, and Janus shifted away slightly so Logan could sit down next to him.  Virgil pulled Logan a little closer, and the three of them ended up curled into a pile together on the couch, and not moving for a long while.  By the end of it at least, he felt a little better.

…

Janus liked to think he was pretty good at pulling away from people at this point.  He was the one who’d made the final call to leave Virgil, and packed up his things and said that was that.  He’d told Remus that friendship wasn’t something that he did, he’d shot down anyone who tried to thank him for his services after they were done.  Pulling away from Virgil the second time and bringing this all full circle had to be about the easiest thing to do.

So when Patton and Logan started helping Virgil out more, and staying nights sometimes, Janus started making his visits to Virgil fewer and farther between.  It didn’t matter how much it hurt.  He was not going to endanger Virgil a second time.

What he didn’t expect was for Virgil to catch on.  Janus was very good at being subtle, he expected that to work with Virgil too.

On the last time he planned to stop by Virgil’s, he brought with him some of Thomas’ chicken noodle soup, since Virgil seemed to like it and Thomas was working that day and couldn’t come by himself.

But the second he opened the door, Virgil grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the couch, barely giving Janus time to stop and put the soup on the table.

Virgil sat them both down on the couch and looked him square in the eye.

“So,” Virgil said, as Janus was trying to get his bearings.  “This is not happening.”

Janus blinked, and raised an eyebrow.  “What’s not happening?”

“This.  You’re pulling away from everyone again.  You are not going to isolate yourself because you feel guilty, or worried, or whatever.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” Janus said, trying to hide the shock he felt at Virgil just coming out and saying it.  He hadn’t even realized Virgil had noticed.

“Don’t bullshit me.  That’s exactly what you’re doing.  You’re pulling away from me, and Remus and Thomas too, by the way.”

“I’m not—” Janus started.

“Don’t bullshit me, Janus.”

Janus glared away.  “I’m not going to endanger you all again.  Look at what happened last time.”

“Oh, boo-hoo.  So you got me kidnapped.  Big deal.”

Janus gaped at him.  “It is a big— Virgil, you still have a broken elbow.  You have nightmares that aren’t going to go away for a long time.  You’re going to have to process this.  It is a big deal.”

Virgil looked away, and Janus knew he was right.  “Yeah, okay, fine.  It’s a big deal.  But you can’t isolate yourself because someone you care about got hurt.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t let you, moron.”

Janus scowled.  “That’s not your decision.”

“The fuck it isn’t!  I’m the one who got kidnapped!”

“You don’t need me, Virgil.  You have Patton and Logan to help with household stuff—”

“Yeah, but they don’t know how I like my clothes organized.”

“And they can stay here and help with your nightmares—”

“They’re easier to keep away when you’re here.”

“And Roman and Remus can help you deal with everything that happened with Francis—”

“They don’t give hugs like you do.”

“And Thomas can make you the chicken noodle soup you like.”

“That’s the only thing he knows how to cook.”

“You don’t need me specifically.”

“I want you though.”

Janus didn’t have a retort to that.  Virgil seemed to get that he wouldn’t, because he just continued to look at him for a while like he was waiting.

“…Why?” Janus said finally.

Then, it was Virgil’s turn to be awkward.  He looked down and fiddled with the strings of his hoodie.  “I’m sorry I said I hate you, you know.”

“What?”

“Back then.  I’m sorry I said it.  I didn’t really mean it.”

“I… I didn’t either,” Janus said.  “But what are you—”

Virgil leaned up and kissed him.

Janus started in surprise, enough that their lips disconnected, but before Virgil could apologize or start regretting that, Janus reached for his shoulders, being careful with his right, and pulled him back in.  He felt Virgil smile into the kiss, and wrap his good arm around Janus’ back, pulling him closer in and moving his broken elbow out of the way.

After another moment, Virgil pulled away again and looked up at Janus.  “Stay?” he whispered.  “Please?  I want you to stay.”

Well.  Janus would have to be a monster to say no to that.

“Alright,” he whispered, and Virgil smiled and pulled him back in.

They’d have a talk about things later, about a way to make it work this time, about Janus needing to talk to Remus and Thomas, and stop avoiding friendships with Roman, Patton, and Logan.  About whether or not Janus was going to keep staying in Virgil’s apartment, only to keep away the nightmares of course.

But for now, Janus relished in the feeling of having Virgil here with him again, of him being safe, and wanting him to stay.

He decided that this time, he just might.

[love-me-a-lotta-whump]

Heyyyy ❤️❤️❤️ it's your favorite anon, ATINY, and I think it's time to reveal my real name: *drum roll* I'm Lena, nice to meet ya 😁

Happy Easter!! How are you doing today? I check your blog on a daily basis so at this point you're not just a blog to me but an actual person with a life outside of Tumblr so I really care about your well-being. Have you ever been asked about your age before? If you don't want to answer it's totally alright, I understand. But I have this weird thing where I love knowing about people's ages, bc of reasons I don't even understand myself lmao xD

I have a question bc I'm genuinely curious: Do you ever watch shows outside of the recommendations you get from your followers? Cause it must be exhausting to some extent to receive all those recommendations, I would imagine. What's one show that really got stuck in your head due to its whump and storyline lately?

Have a great day and enjoy the holidays 😊

Hello, Lena!

Happy Easter! I’m doing alright! I hope you are, too! I’m so happy to hear that you are also here every day! I’m glad to know we’re both vibing here at all times 🤣. I appreciate that you care omg! 🖤🖤🖤 I can’t really remember if I’ve been asked about my age tbh. Normally in DMs it comes up sometimes but not always. I don’t mind answering at all. In fact I think it’s in my bio on my main ( @i-love-me-a-lotta-whump ). I’m 22 as of the beginning of this year! I completely understand wanting to know ages. As a person who enjoys Asian media and plans on moving to Korea at some point, I don’t find it weird at all to want to know someone’s age.

Do I ever watch dramas outside of recs and requests?: Yes! All the time! In fact a lot of my lists were not from requests or recs. However they do overlap sometimes. I’ll have a drama in the works or on my to-do list already and someone will mention it. But yes. I give credit every time if I get a rec or request that tells me of a drama or movie that is new to me. If I didn’t mention it being a request or rec, it was my finding for myself.

It’s not really exhausting but it’s quite a bit to keep organized. And I feel really bad if I have to drop one. I try to message that person and let them know if I did drop it but it can be hard if they’re on anon or if it’s highly requested and I definitely don’t want to post about dropped lists every week.

One drama that’s stuck in my head as for whump and/or storyline: it’s been the same since I watched the first episode. (For those who have been around for ANY period of time you know I’m still obsessed with this one) (Like I love it so much I’m thinking of updating the list with time stamps just so I can technically make another list for it cus I love it so much)

FUUJINSHI >>> {x}

—-

I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS OMG! I’VE HAD THIS FOR SO LONG 😮😮😮

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph! Would you happen to have any fic recs that involve John meeting the Holmes family? I always think that's such an interesting dynamic to see! Also, I think this goes without saying but I love your blog and appreciate your contributions to the fandom! Thanks!

Hey Nonny!

Ah, thank you! I’m glad you enjoy my blog!

Oooo! Yes, I love that dynamic too!! ANNNNND!!! You’re giving me the chance to make a part 2 for a REALLY OLD LIST!!! So YAY!!! I found a bunch on a text doc I haven’t posted yet, so HERE WE GO! Hope you enjoy, and as always, everyone please add your own!

PARENTS AND FAMILIES Pt. 2

See also: 

Parents & Family

Meeting the Family With a Fake Relationship

Do You Love Me? by whitchry9 (K, 641 w., 1 Ch. || Friendship, Family, Epic Bromance) – John asks Sherlock perhaps the most important question.

Once Upon A Time by ProfessorSquirrell (T, 908 w., 1 Ch. || Family, Snippets of Life, Romance, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Implied Drug Use, Angst with Happy Ending) – There is a room in Sherlock's mind palace where nothing gets deleted. And it looks like this...

Crisis Averted by Spartangal22 (T, 2,188 w., 1 Ch. || HLV Fic, Missing Scene After Confronting Mary, Canon Compliant, Sherlock Whump / Mary Shot Sherlock, Family / Friendship, Hospitalization, Sherlock POV, Holmes Brothers) – Lying in the hospital, Sherlock receives some surprising visitors, and manages to deal with two problems he's been having lately. A missing scene from HLV about a formal introduction that was never made and a visit that was never shown.

The Only Available Transportation by blueink3 (T, 5,379 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Fluff and Angst, Insecure Sherlock, Caring John, Parentlock, Sherlock’s Birthday, Family, Misunderstandings) – It’s possibly the desperation that’s seeped into his voice despite his best intentions, or perhaps it’s just a mother’s intuition, but she knows that whatever he’s calling about is Serious, hangover be damned. “What’s happened?” she asks, tone soft and as comforting as a hot cup of tea on a cold winter’s night. “Mummy,” he begins, voice catching. “I think John may be moving out.”

On the Steadfast Approach of an Oncoming Darkness by 2bee (T, 7,772 w., 1 Ch. || Apocalypse, Minor Character Death, Sort of Parentlock) – The world is ending. Not fast, but slowly, like falling asleep with a fever.

The Name Game by ItsClydeBitches221B (K, 8,958 w., 1 Ch. || Humour, Family, Platonics / Friendship, Sort-of Parentlock, John/Mary, Mary is Nice, Five and Ones, Baby Watson, Mycroft Loves Baby Watson) – The names that baby girl Watson comes up with for her extended family. Or: how everyone��Watsons, Holmes, and others alike— just learned to give up and embrace their weirdness.

The Burning of the Leaves by blueink3 (M, 15,915 w., 3 Ch. || Post S4, Angst, Reichenbach, Parentlock, Past Jolto, Idiot John, Sherlock’s a Mess, Puppies, Fluff, Possessive / Jealous Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Matchmaker Sholto, Melancholic Feelings, Emotional Sherlock, Domesticity, Love Confessions in the Rain, Kissing in the Rain, Pet Names) – After the events of series 4, Major Sholto invites John and Sherlock to lunch one day. It nearly proves to be too much for their tenuous relationship as the past haunts the present, putting the future that Sherlock so desperately wants at risk.

Permanent Fixture by vitruvianwatson (E, 18,836 w., 9 Ch. || Post-S4, Parentlock, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, They’re Good Parents, Blushing Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Explicit Consent, Sexual Content, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Big Feelings, Crying, First Kiss, Fluff, Anxious Sherlock, Inexperienced Sherlock, Emotional Communication, Love Confessions) – Now, as Rosie sat curled up against Sherlock’s side, John watched and wondered exactly how he had ended up here. Domesticity had never suited him before, not at any point in his life. His disastrous marriage had been proof of that. But somehow, here in the warmth and safety of 221B Baker Street, here with Sherlock Holmes reading medical jargon to his daughter, Sherlock’s bony feet nudging against his leg, John couldn’t imagine anyplace that would make him happier.

Dropping the Act by jadztone (T, 27,258 w., 10 Ch. || Parentlock, Fake Relationship, Mary’s Family, Post-S4, Cuddling & Snuggling, Bed Sharing, Pining, Christmas) – Sherlock and John are quite happy living together with Rosie in Baker St. They might be even happier if they didn’t act towards each other like their love is only platonic. Mycroft brings troubling news in the form of Mary’s parents wanting to know just what their grandchild’s home life is like. The boys decide to spend Christmas pretending like they are in love in order to seem more like a "normal" family. It's easy enough to pretend when all you're doing is dropping the act.

An Acquired Taste by kinklock (E, 31,059 w., 4 Ch. || Vampires AU || Vampire Sherlock, Misunderstandings, Bat!Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Humour, Magical Realism, Fluff and Angst, Blood Drinking, Holmes Family, Slow Burn) – At Montague Street when Sherlock was forced to sate his body’s needs, he was at least able to wander about the flat as much as he pleased. At Baker Street, it was mini-bags in a mini-fridge and bedroom confinement.

Chaperones by MissDavis (T, 34,114 w., 7 Ch. || 11 Years Post-S4, Fake Relationship, Parentlock, Disney World, Bed / Room Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, First Kiss, Obsessive Sherlock, Insecure John) – Right. Of course. Everyone assumed they were a couple and no one would question it. John put his elbows up on the table so he could rest his head in his hands. "You want to pretend to be a couple so we can chaperone a trip to Disney World with Rosie's class and you won't have to share a room with a stranger?" "Exactly." Sherlock beamed at him. "Don't worry about the cost. The Birmingham case last month paid more than enough to cover expenses for all three of us."

Where The Ghosts Have Voices by HappyJuicyfruit (M, 37,691 w., 12 Ch. || Supernatural AU || Ghosts, Magical Realism, Light Horror, Fluff and Smut, John Can See Ghosts, John Whump, Emotional Manipulation, Dark Magic, Coma, Injury Recovery, Blow Jobs, Anal, Happy Ending, John’s Past, Mr Holmes, Powerful John, Holmes Brothers, Sherlock’s Past, Past Viclock, Drug Abuse, Hair Pulling) – John has lived his whole life as an outcast. It is only when he meets Sherlock, that be realizes being a freak might not be such a bad thing, and that the curse he has lived with his whole life may be a gift after all. (TO READ)

Anchor Point by trickybonmot (E, 49,856 w., 80 Ch. || Truman Show AU || Psychological Drama, Suspense, Slow Burn, Dark Characters / Fic, Alternating First/Third Person, Protective John, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Tender Moments, Love Confessions, Hand/Blow Jobs, Cuddling, Jealous John, First Kiss/Time) – The world tunes in nightly for Sherlock, the ultimate in reality TV: Sherlock Holmes, a real person with a legendary name, unknowingly lives out his life in a staged setting contrived by his brother. Things get complicated when a retired army doctor joins the show to play the part of Sherlock's closest friend. This fic borrows its concept from the 1998 film, the Truman Show. However, you don't need to have any knowledge of the movie to enjoy this story.

The Hollow Woman by ScopesMonkey (M, 51,335 w., 22 Ch. || Post-TRF, Major Character Death, Mystery, Romance, Friendship, Family, Angst, Crime, Reunion, First Kiss / Time, Nightmares, Doctor John, Jealous Sherlock, Jealous John, BAMF John, Angry John, Dub-Con, Rough Sex, Bottomlock, Possessive John, Villain Mary, Open Ending) – Forced to return to London sooner than expected, Sherlock falls into a case too close to home. Part 1 of the Hollowverse series

Repairing the Broken Things by BakerTumblings (M, 75,252 w., 15 Ch. || S4 Compliant, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Trauma, Hospitals, Big Brother Mycroft, Misunderstandings, Realizations, Severe Accident, John Whump, Pneumonia, Medical Procedures, Bed Sharing, First Time, Healing, Happy Ending) – "I'm calling today to notify you that there's been an accident."

Points by lifeonmars (E, 53,791 w., 42 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || HLV Rewrite / Canon Divergence, Married Life, Pregnancy / Baby Watson, Drinking to Cope, Boxing / Fisticuffs, Clueless John, Angst, Minor Medical Drama, Tattoos, Christmas, First Kiss/Time, Eventual Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Doctor John, Sexuality Crisis, Slow Burn, Case Fic, Drugging, Blow/Hand Job, Emotional Love Making, Parenthood, Passage of Time) – What if His Last Vow never happened? This fic picks up a few months after John and Mary's wedding, in an alternate universe where Magnussen doesn't exist, but Mary is still pregnant. Life continues -- just in a different direction. And slowly, Sherlock and John find their way to each other.

The Monument of Memory by J_Baillier (M, 79,663 w., 14 Ch. || Post S4 Fix It Fic / S4 is Canon, Angst, Family Drama, Guilt, Case Fic, John Loves Sherlock, Complicated Feelings, Mentalism / Hypnosis, Murder, Grieving John, Sherlock is a Bit Not Good, Team Work, Trust Issues, BAMF John, Psychological Trauma, Protective John, Autistic-Spectrum Sherlock, Parentlock, John POV) –  A genius traumatised by a past he's only beginning to recall. The psychopath sister that time forgot. A missing woman and a mentalist who may or may not be a murderer. And, in the middle of it all, stands John Watson.

Kintsukuroi by sussexbound (E, 91,823 w., 20 Ch. || S4 Compliant / Post-TLD, Grief / Mourning, PTSD, Internalized Homophobia, Therapy, Past Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Depression, Anxiety, Bed Sharing, Love Confessions, Cuddling, Suicidal Ideation, Masturbation, Minor Character Death, Sexting, Frottage, Inexperienced Sherlock, Rimming / Anal / BJ’s, Emotional Turmoil, Finding Each Other) – “I love you.” Sherlock sees the words hit John with almost physical force. He reels back a little, jaw twitching and eyes filling. “I love you,” he repeats, a little softer, a little more gentle, as earnest as he possibly can. Because they’ve been teetering on the brink of this thing for years, and it had become painfully obvious over the last few months that they were at a tipping point. This had to happen. Now it has. Now they can see where they end up. The tears in John’s eyes spill over, and he wipes at them angrily. “Do you even know what that means?”  

The Summer Boy by khorazir (T, 94,706 w., 6 Ch. || Post S3/Post TAB/Alternate S4, Friends to Lovers, Asexual Sherlock, POV Sherlock, Flashbacks, Bullying, 1980′s Kid Sherlock, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Inexperienced Sherlock, Grief/Mourning, Pining Sherlock, Case Fic, Sherlock’s Past, Awkward Conversations, Anxious Sherlock) – About half a year after the fateful events at Appledore, Sherlock and John embark on a private case in Sussex. For Sherlock, it’s a journey into his past, bringing up memories both happy and sad that he has locked away for almost thirty years. For John, it means coming to terms with the present – and a potential future with Sherlock. Part 1 of the The Summer Boy series

The Wedding Garments by cwb (E, 105,390 w., 36 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Alternate Future AU || Alternate First Meeting, Dating / Arranged Marriages, Romance, First Kiss/Time, Heavy Petting, Cuddles, POV Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn / Falling in Love / Dev. Rel., Nervous/Anxious Sherlock, Jealous/Cranky, Hiking, Vacation Homes / Honeymoon, Sherlock’s Family, Horny John/Sherlock, Patient John, Massages, Hand Jobs, Assassination Plots, Hand Jobs / Oral Sex, Case Fic, Emotional Love Making, Bath Time Fun) – This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It's 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn't need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w., 37 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel., Possessive/Obsessive Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Body Appreciation, Depression, Closeted Sexuality, Family, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Ogling Each Other, Anxious Sherlock, Panic Attack, Drunkenness, Talk of Forever, Big Feelings™) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it's a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

The Lost Special: Family Matters (As Do Relationships) by ShirleyCarlton  (M, 144,688 w., 40 Ch. || S4 Fix It Fic, Unreliable Narrator, John’s Mind Bungalow, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending) – Sherrinford is not really the name of some high security prison. That was just a figment of John’s frantic coma dream. And Eurus is not actually Sherlock’s sister. That’s just something random she said to John before shooting him. Sherlock and John were never actually estranged. That was just their act to cover up what really happened to Mary – or Rosamund Moran, as her real name has turned out to be. Sherlock does have a secret sibling, though, and his name is Sherrinford. After finally eliminating Moran – though in a rather dramatically different way than they had envisioned – and exposing the truth about Eurus, John encourages Sherlock to delve into his past and to find out whether the reasons to keep Sherrinford away from Sherlock were the right ones, and to discover what really happened in 1981. Along the way, Sherlock and John gradually, finally, stop keeping each other at a distance, and eventually become a proper family of their own.

Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.